Digimon Vector: The Epsilon Installment
by Fizzy 13
Summary: Another 'Season 5' fic... The year: 2019. All Tomome Kaira ever wanted to know was why Tamers was the only season she ever liked. Maybe the mysterious CD she buys holds the answer. But why was she attacked by a digimon when they supposedly don't exist?
1. Prologue: The Project

UAN: This is what I might consider v. 1.0002 of Vector. A little minor editing should be the objective here along with little tweaks made to the plot just to make sure it's all coherent. It's not good to have an incoherent plot, since the plot's what drives a story after all (besides character, I mean.) I left the original notes to make sure I don't forget anything to mention or anything. One MAJOR mistake I made was the Pentagon's location, which is actually in Arlington, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington D.C. With that settled, we can carry on with the ever so slightly revised story.

AN: Now the idea here is that I originally planned to start writing this AFTER I finished the Network Security series, but apparently, I'm willing to do just about anything to get back into writing. My pet rabbit, Josher, is currently running around my back yard as I type this note, and the time is 4:06 AM in the morning. Damn, I should really get some sleep. In any case, as with any first chapter of majority of my stories, this one is just a feeler, and is damned short. I don't know if I'm writing clichéd stereotype characters here, but most probably, yes… hell should I know! The reason of my being unsure is because I haven't even been able to see the first two seasons… It would've been nice enough had I seen the Tamers Movies, but nooooo, I had to stick to the series! Anybody know where I can buy a copy? In any case, I hope that the Digivolution concepts, at least, are original enough. I do recall, however, seeing Crest and Egg or something like that in the small peeks I've done into the first two seasons… Correct me if I'm wrong, anyway. Now, this is probably going to be hard to find since I won't put it under any character categorization (i.e. Char 1: Takato M., Char 2: Ruki M.), so I suggest that if you plan to be notified that I've uploaded another chapter, for you to put me on your author alert lists. You're also probably wondering what 'The Epsilon Installment' is supposed to mean, or whether it makes any sense at all. The logic here is simple… I got tired of seeing 'Digimon Season 5' as the title for almost EVERY 'Season 5' fic I've read, which sums up to… 3… 'The Epsilon Installment' is just a cooler, or maybe jargon term for 'Season 5', since technically, epsilon is the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet. As for the 'Vector' part, you'll see soon enough. First off, I'm also tired of goggle boys. Aren't you? why don't they ever make goggle girls? Well, I hope this one's good enough. My close associate, newbi, defines a goggle boy as a stereotype asshole of a leader, and since, technically, girls are 'smarter' than boys, a goggle girl would hopefully be smart enough not to make the same mistakes as all the goggle boys out there. If the ideas in this story sound similar or even match the concepts in yours, then I'm sorry to bust your ready-to-sue-me bubble, but I brainstormed on these all by myself, thank you. If that answer is still not enough to satisfy your bloodthirsty bubbles of suing, then perhaps I should ask you to think for one second that it could be one big coincidence that we were thinking about the same thing as we typed our fics. The Digimon Game concept is probably the most clichéd here, and I'm terribly sorry that I couldn't think of anything more original than that in order to get a bunch of kids into the Digital World. Technically, though, it's not the game that takes them there, although something similar. Thank you again.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Digimon in this story (most of them, anyway). Just about everything else, however, belongs to me.

DIGIMON VECTOR: THE EPSILON INSTALLMENT 

By Fizzy 13 

Prologue: The Project 

Ed-i-fy (ĕďĕ-fi') _tr.v__._–fied, -fying, -fies. To instruct or enlighten so as to encourage moral or spiritual improvement. [Middle English _edifien__, _from Old French _edifier_, from Latin _aedificāre_, to build, instruct.] (The Grolier International Dictionary, 1981)

Warehouse 15, Bandai Corporation International Distribution Center, Outskirts of Washington D.C.

June 2, 2019 - Sunday, 0015 Hours, EST…

"Sir, we've got him cornered!" several men in black combat gear, wielding standard US Army weaponry stormed into the shipping crate alley from whence the said transmission originated. This procedure was completely black op, and thus, nobody else except the Directorate's higher-ups knew of this event's taking place. They filed up behind another two of their team mates, totting all their armaments and assorted ordinances at the bug-like creature that cowered in a corner of the dead end, shaking violently out of utter fear, if not shame.

Captain Bradley Stormwell looked at the insect-thing with utter contempt in his eyes. Its hideous form alone disgusted him, moreover what trouble it had given him and his team. He'd lost three men that night, all falling prey to its deadly attacks, as well as to those of its comrades, who, by this time, had all been eradicated cleanly and efficiently enough. "Where did you hide the discs?" he asked it with a chilling lack of emotion. When the creature didn't answer, he gave it a good strong kick in one of its shins and repeated the question with renewed force, "Where did you hide the discs?"

Still no reply as it continued to cower. Stormwell shook his head, half because of pity and half because of irritation, as he drew a sidearm, specially modified to injure this creature and all of its kind, and shot its leg. The impact caused it to screech horridly as the said limb began to lose structure, rust-colored particles and rainbow colored streams of data code flowing out of and away from it every now and then, until finally, the leg vanished altogether. "Now tell me… Where did you hide the discs?"

Miraculously, more specifically, to somebody who was uninitiated into this kind of knowledge and lifestyle, it spoke, its voice gruff and hoarse, probably due to its injury, or simply because of its inferiorly evolved vocal cords, "I don't know what you're talking about…"

"Tch…" Stormwell snorted in exasperation and shot another one of its five remaining limbs, that one disintegrating into its purest form, rainbow-colored strips of data, with countless particles of the same color as their owner orbiting them. "I'll ask you one last time, you worthless concoction of rotting data code… Where did you hide the discs?"

The creature continued to writhe in pain, its mandibles chattering in what appeared to be a slow, pained rhythm… Stormwell flinched in disgust at the pathetically pitiful sight. Here was a Champion Level digimon, a heavily armored one at that, cowering in a corner, squirming its eyes out… wherever they were, that is. All that was left in requirement to make it resemble a common, petty criminal who was cornered was for it to begin begging desperately on its knees (all 4 of them) for mercy. Well, what could one expect? The Directorate's Avalon Team was the one team that _really _struck fear into the enemy, the one team that everybody else envied; the best of the best of the best… well, compared to teams Becton, Chevron, Davion, and all the others, that is. "It's useless to try milking this scumbag for information it's not willing to give out…" the Directorate Agent concluded, "After all, it appears to be only an underling, and nothing more." Stormwell turned around to walk away, pausing in a half step, "Erase it…"

He half smiled as streams of gunfire erupted from assorted rifles' muzzles, the hapless digimon screaming in agony as the Data Code Buster (DCB) bullets penetrated its protective carapace, reducing it to its primordial form. A serene expression found its way to his face, a sense of content at the execution of this fiend. Not because of the trouble it had caused him this far, however, but what its kind had done to him in the past. "This, and every other dead digimon, is all for your sake, Linda," he whispered as he began to hear ringing.

The Avalon Team Leader tapped on his commlink earpiece, establishing contact with the Directorate's Headquarters inside the Pentagon. "Sir, we've tracked the thief down to Bandai's International Distribution Section. It was a digimon… Didn't have the discs on it, though… I'm betting it hid 'em somewhere in this warehouse that's…" he tipped one of the crates over to see its contents. Case upon case of CDs programmed to contain Bandai's latest project, an Online RPG designed to house thousands upon thousands of players on a single server similar in map design to the Digimon Multiverse's Digital Worlds, spilled out and scattered on the floor, causing a racket enough to wake the dead, or in the case of D&D fans, undead. What was the game called, you ask? The title was simple enough: Digimon Online. "Full of discs…" Stormwell finished his statement, a sinking feeling welling up inside him.

"I can see your point…" the voice on the other side replied in an accent somewhat similar to those of mafia leaders, dons. To be more specific, something like the godfather. It was cool, collective, and somewhat suave at the same time, suppressed to the point that it was coarse in quality. "Well, you've done everything you could on your part, Stormwell. Go home and get some rest."

"Yes sir." Stormwell turned to his men. Being a former member of DEVGRU (SEAL Team 6), he was used to all the ruthlessness that was involved with the job, and his recruitment into the Directorate merely felt like a reassignment. What Directorate was he assigned to exactly? Knowledge of its existence was highly classified, and was known only to a few of the Pentagon's Top Brass, specifically General Gregory Freeman, who indirectly supervised its operations. It was the Directorate that was placed in charge of monitoring and protecting all of the United States Government's property in cyberspace and all other conceptions related to it, the Digital Defense Directorate (DDD). "Alright, boys. We've done all we could. Get a cleanup crew in here and we're done. Now move it!"

Unbeknownst to them, however, a silhouette crouched above the top of the crates, spying on their progress, a long, silken tail waving behind its form as it silently continued to observe. As DDD's Avalon Team vacated the premises, so too did the mysterious figure, seemingly darting out of existence as we know it. Somewhere amongst the piles and piles of discs inside the vast warehouse, seven glowed somewhat ethereally, clearly different from the rest in terms of covering and quality, almost as if calling out to whomever was out there, waiting for that specific person to take them and use them, eager to unleash their inherent and unlimited power…

Guild Master's Chamber, Kazek' faleil Cell – The Guild, Somewhere in London

June 2, 2019 - Sunday, 0536 Hours, AST…

_Crack_… that was the sound that echoed throughout the vast, ornately decorated, and not to mention, dark, gloomy chamber, its only source of light some torches on the walls that failed to shed their glow on the oak desk and comfy chair that rested at the end. What had broken, exactly? It was nothing more than the delicate golden brown body of a Graham Cracker, which, obviously, from its name alone, was designed to crack. This one was of the honey-flavored variety, bringing sweetish and wonderful delight to its devourer, a mysterious man who sat in the said comfy chair and desk, chewing his favorite treat quite meticulously. The cracker's source came in the form of even more Grahams lying prettily on a silver saucer that rested on the left side of the desk, as though they were a bunch of chicks relaxing on the beach on a hot summer's day.

He had sent some of his best men… digimon, rather, to ambush the Digital Defense Directorate's convoy in order to retrieve those discs that he had coveted for so long. The Directorate was transferring them from their secret laboratory underneath the Pentagon to a much safer location, currently unknown to even he, with his vast network of spies inside the United States' Intelligence Community.

It had been those darling, precious discs that he had desired all this time. Not only were they capable of generating a stable gateway into the infinity that was cyberspace, that gate was also capable of generating more than enough energy to outclass the combined annual output of every nuclear reactor on the planet at least a trillion times over in a single second of its own energy release. This said energy has been theorized by researchers, both acclaimed and not, to be capable of triggering instantaneous transcendence towards a higher form of existence, although the sudden burst of evolution would most likely be _highly unstable_, if not _stable yet temporary_.

Soon enough, they would return and bring the long awaited prize into his presence, the power of a god, to be more precise. He would then become the most envied of all 13 Guild Masters, as well as the biggest candidate for replacing the old, vegetative, and practically dead leader of the Seven Wise Men, thus gaining the highest position in the Guild without having to break a sweat. He continued to chew his Graham, savoring its wondrous, lavish essence, his tongue playing around with all of the marvelous, tantalizing sensations it gave. _Yes_, he thought. _Soon, I shall become the Grand Wiseman. It is then the world shall fall to its knees at the very mention of my name…_

So it was at this exact moment, that his name was indeed mentioned… at least, his name in the Guild, rather, by a figure that had seemingly materialized out of thin air in front of his desk, its voice calm and feminine, "Guild Master Thak' Rhazhad… I bring urgent news concerning the situation with the discs…" Judging from the tail that lazily swayed behind her (one could assume from the voice that it was indeed a she), as well as the slim, vulpine build, this certain figure was hardly close to human.

"Ah, Renamon…" the Guild Master, Thak' Rhazhad as he was called, smiled darkly, the light reflecting off his perfect teeth being the only thing above his shoulders that wasn't concealed by the darkness around the desk. His semi-athletic body was wrapped up in a green suit coat, yellow shirt and blue tie underneath. He took another Graham from the saucer and bit it, chewing in a way that seemed somewhat menacing to the digimon that kneeled on a knee in front of him, head bowed. "And what kind of news might this be, hmm? Is it about the party's estimated time till arrival?"

"Actually, sir…" she paused somewhat nervously, in doubt of what she should do: please him by lying and being punished later, or being honest and begging for another chance to work it out. She had seen many perish in this very chamber due to her master's flaring temper that was always seemingly so delicately balanced that if you tipped it one way, it would result in a catastrophe, and if you tipped it in the other, it would shower you with reward. Surely, she would expire eventually in one way or another, and it was best to show the Guild Master that her loyalties indeed lay with him. To sum it up, she opted for the second scenario, "I'm very sorry to say this, but… Kwagamon's Unit was wiped out. He did manage to hide the discs inside a warehouse, though…"

"Warehouse?" that single word, compounded with the Guild Master's current tone, which showed that he was definitely displeased, was more than enough to send chills up Renamon's digital spine. "What… kind of warehouse?"

"Bandai Corporation's International Distribution warehouse… the place where they store discs before shipping them off to retail facilities around the world…" To her, 'world' meant either one of two things: the Planet Earth and the nations on it (pretty much everybody's definition), and cyberspace, which, by her standards, was far larger compared to the first meaning. She had spent her first five years there, In Training, lost in its infinite size that always seemed to get bigger. Over the years, cyberspace had expanded to the approximate size of nearly two exebytes, quite a large number, and impossible for a simple-minded human to imagine. The things she did to stay out of that place probably ranged from the most sensible of things to the maddest concoctions of the mind. "Forgive their incompetence, master," she added, trying to set apart her position from that of theirs.

"I see…" he chewed on the last of his Grahams rather harshly, as if trying to vent some of his escalating anger onto the little treats that were now tasteless to him because of his mindset, "And what do you expect me to do to you?" His gnawing seemed to become more grotesque by the second, another sign that he was getting very annoyed, besides his last statement.

"Thy desire is what I yearn for, master." Renamon could feel it… she could feel him seething at this moment, utter rage inside him preparing to explode at any second. A hand touched her… _his_ hand, powerful in structure, more than enough to snap her neck in two if he wanted to. She felt the fingers trace her face all the way down to her chin. _This_ _is it, _she thought. _My life is over…_ She braced herself, heart racing wildly, for the sudden violent and swift grasping and snapping of her neck, which… didn't come. Instead, the hand remained at her chin and lifted her face to meet his own, azure eyes looking up into what she imagined to be a burning shade of red, although it was covered in the veil of the shadows. Something was in that movement that seemed to calm her down from her alerted state… reassured her… told her… that everything was all right.

"Renamon, Renamon, Renamon…" the Guild Master's voice was calm… cool… almost kind. His fingers wandered upwards to caress her left cheek… softly… gently… soothingly… She was beginning to like this. A warm and fuzzy feeling was already building up inside of her, cheeks beginning to flush. Her heart began to race once more for some reason, and she couldn't explain why.

"Master…" Over the years since Renamon had been summoned by the Guild, abruptly taken out of the Digital World for reasons unknown, she had been nurtured and cared for by none other than him. He was hard at times, but she had grown to respect that side of him. He was _only_ human after all, and was incapable of remaining sane without releasing his anger at things, lashing out. Her eyes closed, just delighting in his touch… That was when his hand stopped and drew back, returning to the side of her face in a slap with enough force to make a homerun had her head been a baseball. She was taken aback by the unexpected violence, eyes suddenly wide open, head facing her extreme right, a strange, liquid heat going down the left side of her mouth. She brought her three-fingered right paw's equivalent of an index finger to touch the hot fluid and withdrew it to see her pure white fur stained with living crimson.

The fox digimon looked up to her master in a daze of disbelief, sensing that his mood had changed dramatically. It was as though his invisible eyes were now staring… glowering… scowling… at her. "WHAT WERE YOU **_THINKING_**, COMING IN HERE WITH SUCH UNWARRANTED NEWS!?" his British accent now stood out, easily adapted to his outburst. "**_YOU_** OF ALL MY AIDES SHOULD **_KNOW_** THAT I **_HATE_ **BAD NEWS!"

Tears began to well up in her eyes as word after reprimanding after insult was ejected from his mouth and into her pointed ears. She may have respected his explosive nature, but that didn't mean that she remained unaffected emotionally by it, especially after being stroked in such a manner that she felt as though she were in a spa, getting a massage, which, she never got. Renamon began to sob rather uncontrollably, calmed down only by the sudden loud ringing in her ears caused by a suppressive gunshot into the air.

As his subordinate's attention was turned to him, instead of her own petty feelings, the Guild Master put his sidearm back on the desk and calmed down, somewhat. "You know how much I need those discs, Renamon… how much _we_ need them." He came to a resolution, "I shall give you another chance… but be wary. My patience draws thin. I want you to find those discs and bring them back as soon as possible. Now take this." he removed a ring with the Kazek' faleil Cell's signet from his finger, symbol of his influence, his power, and handed it over. "You know very well how a Guild Cell's signet ring symbolizes its Guild Master's authority. You now have permission to use mine."

Renamon was dumbstruck as she accepted the mighty crest and clumsily slid it onto her finger. In her right mind, she could not possibly accept such a privilege. No, she was too humble to do so, and was content to be Thak' Rhazhad's executrix as long as she was allowed by the forces of balance to survive another day in this human-infested world. Right now, however, she was not in her right mind, since, technically, she was still in shock from what had just ensued.

"Now go and utilize all that Kazek' faleil has to offer. You have seven days to bring me those discs, and if you don't succeed…" he scraped some of her coagulating blood off her face and rubbed it in between his fingers as if emphasizing what he was evidently foreshadowing, "You know what will happen to you…"

_It's__ not like I have much of a choice…_ Renamon bowed yet again, as she phased out of this reality and into the next.

In the meantime, the Guild Master had brought out another pack of Grahams from the inside pocket of his coat, and laid them out carefully on his silver saucer, throwing the empty plastic wrapper into the garbage bin that sat beside his comfy chair. Today was going to be another one of those days. Maybe he was going to ask another of his lowly servants to bring him a cup of Joe… After all, it was nearing dawn, and he hadn't had a wink in 36 hours. He picked another of the luscious snacks from the dish, looking at it almost lustfully as he brought it to his invisible mouth and bit down on it. He smiled as he heard his favorite sound. _Crack_…

Director's Office, Digital Defense Directorate Headquarters, Sublevel 7 – Arlington, Virginia

June 2, 2019 - Sunday, 0251 Hours, EST…

Disappointed… that was exactly how the Director felt as he skimmed the report concerning what had ensued earlier. The convoy was moving out of the country to bring the discs to their safe house somewhere in Canada. Unfortunately, it would appear that it was ambushed by a group of hostile digimon, who were apparently intent on gaining possession of the discs. Why did they? It wasn't like they had the technical knowledge to utilize Project: Causeway's untapped and unlimited power. They had to have an employer of some kind who would most probably be powerful… rich at the very least, and had some motive to do so.

To get closer to the point, though, one would wonder why he was disappointed. It was all because of the incompetence of the three search and retrieve units that have been sent into that warehouse to locate them. Thus far, they had failed to accomplish their objective. He flicked open his green Johnny Walker lighter and pushed down on the ignition toggle, flame and fumes rising up to burn the copper lump that was positioned there to cause the fire to turn to the color matching its source. He stared at it for a few moments, wasting precious butane as the grass-colored combustion burned on, and finally brought it to make contact with the waiting tip of the cigar in his mouth.

A short flash later, and he was puffing his miseries away. Christen Khimes as he was named… the Director as he was known… but most importantly, Sir, as he was called, shut his lighter and placed it in his suit's left breast pocket, placing his sunglasses back on. Stormwell had no idea how lucky he was, getting to live the exciting life while his boss rotted away in his high position. Sure, he had control of two squadrons of F-22 Raptors, three F-117 Nighthawks, Stealth Fighters, as they were commonly called, a dozen Blackhawks, Comanche Stealth Choppers, Apaches, and other assorted military aircraft, but they were never really used. The same went for ground vehicles such as Humvees, Crusaders, and even some prototype Paladins, but who cared? It didn't even matter that he was in control of Directorate Strike Teams Avalon through Zephyron, which consisted mostly of SEALs and Delta Force Members, former or not. Like was said earlier, they were never really used.

Khimes puffed yet again, savoring the flavor of the Cuban tobacco, a real Ybañez if he'd ever tasted one… A soft knock on the door disturbed his only short period for 'quiet' time, not literally, but more of in a state of mind. He smoked to calm himself down, to get rid of all his problems, which was quite an effective method depending on the brand and quality of his smoker… Cigars were his favorite, although pipes would suffice if necessary. Cigarettes, however, were out of the question. After all… research stated that much more people died of cigarette smoking in the last ten years alone, than the total amount of those who smoked cigars and pipes in the last century. Speaking of centuries, it had been six years since the centennial celebration of the birth of human flight. _I wonder how Wilber and Orville would feel if they saw all these gorgeous babies that I've got in the Directorate's hangars… undetectable by radar at night… able to carry soldiers to their destinations in minutes… capable of breaking the sound barrier…_

Descended from a very little known mafia clan that seemed to prefer doing more 'good' than 'bad', he was determined to stick to the pride of his family name. Although it didn't sound Italian, Khimes was merely an Americanized variation of Kim̃eterchi, which obviously sounded more Italian… The DDD Director puffed one last time, sticking the live end of his cigar into the crystal ashtray on his desk, along with all of his worries. He was calm now, feeling much better, ready to face whatever stepped through that door… "Come in…"

A somewhat lanky man in a business suit gingerly pushed the door open and stepped in, somewhat nervous since he knew the Director's demanding prerequisites for their salary. "Um… sir… we just got a call from General Freeman and Dr. Boyd… They want to know how the search for Project: Causeway is going."

"And what did you tell them?" Khimes replied, his strange mix of Brooklyn and Italian a little hard to understand for the untrained ear. "You could've most probably made up an extremely _long_ story that would've irritated the bastards to the point that they would just let us go on with our God-forsaken lives… or something like that. It's not like Project: Causeway will end up in the hands of some kids who'll mistake them for the copies of some dumb computer game, or anything. It's more likely that Bandai would detect the discs during a pre-distribution test, label them as defective, and burn them all to hell…" (AN: Pretty much getting the picture?)

Mister Lanky scratched his head and thought of the best way to tackle this situation. How could he tell the Director of what he did in response to the call? "Actually, sir, if you watched the four o'clock yesterday, you would know that Bandai plans to start distributing those warehouses' contents to various stores around the world this morning… If that happens, we'll never be able to track them down to wherever—"

"Nonsense, McCullough," the Director interjected, "Fact is: I _want_ those discs to go global. That way, we can all go on this nice little worldwide Easter Egg Hunt, with the competition being whoever the shitty hell ambushed our convoy and tried to steal them…" He looked at McCullough as if he was answering an unasked question about whether or not the Director had flipped his lid. "It's time I got some action around here, and this is _just_ the exercise my overly bored brain needs. Get each shipment of discs that leaves that warehouse its very own spy satellite. That way, we'll be able to track their progress overseas."

"But what do we do once they get to the stores? Once people start buying, we'll never be able to track them down any further…" McCullough always took his boss' orders seriously, although he sounded like he was merely joking around sometimes… Even though the order was ridiculous, he followed it down to the letter. Good ol' obedient McCullough, 'Director's Pet', as they liked to call him, always following orders without even questioning their sanity, moreover moral applications. This time, however, the orders were beginning to sound a little too farfetched.

"Take it easy, McCullough…" Khimes remained cool, "I've got it all figured out. Using our advanced satellite-tracking prowess, track down every person who leaves those shops down to their houses, catalogue their addresses, and once those discs run out of stock, all we have to do is kindly ask those who bought some if we can examine their copies. It may take a lot of time and a lot of work, but that's what makes an Easter Egg Hunt… Get Agent Esteban to head the operation. I want each of those discs to have at least one transmitter on them… Something like a simultaneous raid on stores worldwide who have them and bugging all of the copies." Finally, he had a chance to use all of the useless junk that the Pentagon was supplying them with for no reason at all. It was all going to be used for a good purpose as well, so nobody was going to complain.

"As you wish, sir," McCullough nodded and left the room quietly, leaving the man of the hour, so to speak, alone to himself, his lighter, and his cigars.

Khimes opened his cigar box and took out another, pulling his drawer open, trying to pick another one of his Johnny Walker lighters, all the same in design (some vague impression of a guy in a suit and bowler hat with a cane strolling down the street with the label 'Johnny Walker') yet differing in color. _Blue is the color that brings peace in all aspects, they say… _He took out a blue version of his lighter and flicked it open, igniting the mineral, causing its flame to turn a deep shade of dark blue as he brought it to his newly mounted cigar, yet another 35-dollars-each Ybañez, and began to smoke once more. "Yes sir, it's gonna be another one of those days…"

Kaira Residence, Chuo Ward, Asuka, Tokyo (Hey, I gotta change the locales from Shinjuku sometime, don't I?)

June 2, 2019 – Sunday, 1812 Hours, PST

"Bandai's latest addition to the still lively Digimon craze, started over two decades ago by its creator, Akiyoshi Hongo, is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game entitled Digimon Online, similar in style to the still alive and kicking Ragnarok Online, which was first launched internationally by Gravity Inc. in 2001." Tomome Kaira sat, eyes transfixed on the TV screen as the host continued to give a preview on the game's features, which were tested by 'Videocrit', a popular Video Game Critique show, which was what she was watching at the moment.

"Awesome graphics and character designs based on what is surprisingly _not_ those from the 7 previous games, but instead on characters from the so-named anime, give quite a different feel to it, especially if you've created a Guard Tamer who looks like Tai, or a Bit Huntress who looks like Henry's sister, Suzie." The screen showed recorded clips of different groups of character sprites resembling assorted Digidestined/Tamer/Chosen Child characters running around, doing different things, like blowing up/beating the crap out of/killing assorted digimon, doing 'business' in city streets, and even, much to Tomome's surprise, 'dating'… "Hey, why the hell is Davis with Zoe!?" the geek-glasses-nerdy host complained, "They're two seasons apart, for Christ's sake!"

Her name, as a whole, was Tomome _Ashley_ _Pearson_ Kaira, the American part of which, she just didn't feel fit with. Why her parents decided to give her the second name 'Ashley', was a complete mystery… one that dealt her some embarrassment at school, or at play. It probably had to do with the fact that her mother was an American who married her father here while she studied Japanese Technology. _What a time to have children,_ she thought. "The 12 available jobs and 3 type classes, namely Vaccine, Data, and Virus, make for a total of 36 unique character classes alone, moreover hundreds of different builds and skills for each, allowing boundless opportunity to… um… abound. This style of gameplay gives you the insights that Hongo had failed to place into his hit anime series, not to mention the chance to use a hell of a lot of unique skills, and of course, Digimon." Yet again, the screen showed more clips as the host continued to babble on, this time, of gigantic and colorful explosions implied by the narration to be character and/or digimon skills.

"Whether your pipsqueak tenderfoot character 'grows up' to become either a crafty Bit Hunter, a skillful Spirit Captor, or a rowdy Knight Tamer, is entirely up to your taste. Right now, though, my 'Kouji-style' Debugger is telling me to rate this beautiful work of art, a titanic ten out of ten." The last clip shrunk down until it was bordered by a screen with Videocrit's motif, the bottom portion showing the figure 10/10. That was all that could be shown before Tomome, Tomie as most called her, killed the TV set.

"Only twelve more hours, and they're going on sale!" she squealed with delight as she relieved her troubled shoulder-length sky blue hair of the burden of housing her not-so-matching purple goggles. She seemed to be so hooked onto that franchise that she'd been wearing those things since she was eight. Tomie ran up the stairs and into her room, placing the said eyewear onto the table beside her bed as she ripped her socks off and practically allowed herself to fall on the sheets (Take the Nestea Iced Tea Plunge!). She reached for a jpeg printout on the said table, looking up into it almost dreamily from her sunken-into-bed position. It was a picture she downloaded when she was younger, more naïve, childish, whatever you want to call it, containing a certain boy with dirt-brown hair, amber eyes, and a pair of yellow goggles on his head.

"Ta-ka-to Mat-su-ki…" she slowly read the caption at the bottom, pronouncing each syllable as properly as she could, almost savoring them for some reason. She sighed as she placed the picture back from where it came from. 'Tamers' was the first season she saw, and was hooked onto it since episode one. Sure, the graphics were nothing compared to today's shows, but there was something in it that just… grew on her. After she finished the entire DVD series, Digimon had become her passion, denoted into obviousness by the goggles. She checked out the first two, and the four others that came after Tamers. None were the same at all. None of them grew on her, even though the graphics were so-said to be better, even though the characters seemed deeper, even though the plots were even more twisted… there was something missing in all that.

"I just wish I knew what was missing…" As her eyes closed, her mind began to wander and her thoughts began to talk in a somewhat confusing manner. _That way, I could finally watch the whole seven cartloads of milk and become a true patriot by getting stuck on ice…_ Although she was thinking incoherently, this was simply because of the fact that she was practically asleep, tired from the whole day's worth of studying and of course, checking out the nearest cybershop for updates concerning anything related to Digimon, more specifically, the price rate and release date of Digimon Online, which happened to be the next day. She swore to herself in her dream, that she would be the first person in the neighborhood to get her hands on a copy… and _that_, she would do anything to accomplish…

To be continued…

AN: Well, there you have it… my feeler. Questions you probably have are: WHY THE HELL DID YOU MAKE A GOGGLE GIRL ANYWAYS!? Does she have a crush on Takato? Or maybe, Are you gay? Answer number 3: NO, I AM NOT GAY… I just think Digimon needs a change of style once in a while. I mean look, we've got four brash, annoying BOYS who wear goggles as if they were trying to point out that they were the best… the leaders… the cream of the crop… the girls always end up saying, "SAVE ME!" or, "He's too strong… can't beat him…" or shit like that. How's about giving the opposite sex a chance to go, "You shall be destroyed by the power of our friendship!" or crap like that. Answer number 2: What do you think? I'll let you be Tomie's judge. Answer number 1: Technically, it's already been answered by Answer number 3… My description of Tomie was probably too vague for you, ne? Alrighty, then… picture an 11-year-old Meia Gisborn (vandread) with her character design 'digimonized'. Getting a picture? Good. Now imagine her with purple goggles instead of that evil black bind she wears all the time, a white printed shirt with a chibi Guilmon on it, open royal blue jacket, green slacks, purple rubber shoes, and there you have it. A strange yet somewhat cute concoction of my twisted mind. Any further questions are to be sent to my email address, which is conveniently placed in my profile. Thank you for reading, and please review! Sorry yet again if this thing is so typical of a plot that it's predictable. I'm just dying from lack of ideas these days.

Up Next (hopefully):

"Gate Key Three: Engaged," Patterson announced, "Trying to zero in on the disc's tracking signal, Doctor."

"Zis cannot be good!" Dr. Boyd exclaimed as Gate Key Three's emblem, a rifle, materialized on the Observation Center's main view screen, "Phoject: Causevay vill only vuhk phopehly if za discs ah in za same vicinity und activatud simultaneously!"

"What'll happen if they're not activated simultaneously?" Springer inquired, obviously unfamiliar with the experiments that have been done regarding the discs.

"Gate Key Seven: Engaged. Satellite tracking systems are a go, we are searching every continent on the planet right now." A pair of bat wings lighted up, symbol of the seventh key.

"Ve tested ze discs vonce befoh, Sphingah, und za fohtex zat vas genehated vas highly unshtable, lashting foh no longah zan five sechunds." Boyd was now in a panic, portrayed quite perfectly by his nearly incomprehensible German accent.

"Gate Key Four: Engaged," a Grandfather clock lit up this time, "We've got a lock on the first one…"

"Zey ahun't evun being activatud in za cohhect ohdah!"

"Gate Key One: Engaged," a white Coat of Arms came into view, "We've confirmed the second one…"

"What about if they're not in the same area?"

"I haf no idea, alzough I supphose za gatevay vill hahdly be shtable…"

"Gate Key Five: Engaged," an Ace of Spades popped up, "Signal number three is being tracked…"

"Well, what if both proper operational requirements are wanting?"

"Gate Key Two: Engaged," a samurai's traditional sword, the Katana, spiraled onto the screen, "Gate Key One's location has been tallied."

"Za effects vill mosht likely be dishasthous… whatevhah zey ah, zough, veah about to find out…"

"Gate Key Six: Engaged… Project: Causeway is going online…" A crimson sphere, appeared on screen, connecting in some way of another to all the other six as a message appeared on screen.


	2. Installment Entry No 1

AN: Well, after assessing my situation, I might as well carry on with this little project due to all the small, yet positive feedback I got last time around. Besides, Guardian Algorithm is extremely long, I have four more scenes to write down, and I don't feel like I'm so into them right now. Know what I mean? So guess I should work this out that I might finally be able to concentrate on GA…

Disclaimer: Hey, if I told you once, I told you once: I don't own Digimon. Just majority of the characters who're human.

Installment Entry No. 1: A Good Day for a Good Knight

Block 17, Chuo Ward, Asuka, Tokyo

June 3, 2019 – Monday, 1916 Hours, PST

          A pair of cobalt eyes stared down from their high vantage point and into the second story's window, at the girl who was currently sitting down in front of her PC, doing some work. _Goggles, _their owner thought, _probably a fanatic, this one._ Whoever was on that rooftop was hardly a peeping tom, since it was hardly even human. The girl continued to work on her Com, obviously oblivious to this stalker's presence. The Guild Master had given her a week to collect all discs. It looked like she was on schedule. _One down, six to go…_ the vulpine figure leaped an astonishing six feet into the air and remained suspended, where she spread her arms out wide and called upon her 'talents', "Diamond Storm!" Hundreds to thousands of jeweled shards materialized in the air in front of her in small groups until she practically had a solid figure floating there altogether, at which point they began darting towards the closed balcony window, shattering the fragile glass and startling the girl from her work.

          Tomie Kaira had apparently overslept upon getting home, and by the time she woke up and got to the nearest CD store, they only had one left. So much for being the first to buy one. At least she had a copy, though, and although the actual setup prompt displayed different instructions from what was written on the case, it still made sense, more or less. She was just about to hit the return key to trigger the installation, or rather, the 'Key Engagement' command, as the disc stated it, when glass broke, causing to jump her out of place and face the direction from whence the sound came. On the balcony stood, on its hind legs, a yellow fox-like creature, eyes showing no hint of kindness whatsoever. What scared her even more, though, was the fact that she easily recognized what it was. "This can't be… you're a Renamon…"

          The vixen thing smirked knowingly. She was right, this one _was_ a fanatic. "That's right. Tell me, what else is new?"

          "B…but… you can't be real! You're a digimon! They're just characters in games and anime!" _This is insane!_ It was just the kind of thing that would happen to a person who was about to be plunged into the Digimon Universe, a digimon-related encounter that would shatter her original view of all existence. The kind of thing that usually happened to a digidestined… and they always came as complete surprises. She chuckled at herself for being so stupid. 'Tamers' was supposed to explore the possibility of Digimon occurring in _this_ world, the 'real' world. She never expected it to happen, though. This incidence most probably had no connection to Tamers, though.

          "You can never tell what's real and what's fictional these days, kid. Now hand over the disc." She outstretched her paw, showing that she was waiting for what was inside Tomie's CD Drive. It was tough luck that her mother was working late tonight. Her father died in a car accident when she was six and she could barely remember him.

          "The disc?" that was when suspicion clouded her tantalized her imagination, "Why?"

          "That doesn't matter, does it?" Renamon's claws spread out even further apart from each other, giving the child the impression that she was losing her temper. "You seem to know a lot about Digimon… am I right?"

          "Are you kidding me? Digimon's my life!"

          "Then you do know what I can do to you if you don't do as I say…"

          The situation was _really_ turning out to look like a scene from a possible pilot episode for an eighth season. _What would a first-impression-bad digimon want with a disc?_ The setup prompt was visibly different from what she saw on TV, and moreover the case itself. Perhaps this copy of Digimon Online wasn't what it seemed. On the most part, the disc probably wasn't even a copy of Digimon Online, but something much bigger, and this fox was probably after the data stored on the disc, or, from the looks of things, the program on the disc. If this was the pilot episode of an eighth Digimon season, the disc would most likely be, one way or another, a key to the digital world. But what were the odds of that happening? It then hit her like a boulder: what were the odds of a first-impression-bad digimon barging in on her at night while she was home alone trying to install a disc that didn't even look or act like the one she was looking for? She unnoticeably hit the return key, triggering the Key Engagement command, which brought up a progress bar. Thirty seconds. That was a lot of time to stall, "What's with the disc?"

          "I told you, it's none of your business. Now hand it over." Renamon's open paw balled up into a fist and began to spasm, depicting that her patience was practically withered out from all the delay.

          "Not until you tell me what it does." The goggled girl snapped back, clearly intent on getting an answer.

          "Listen kid, you have no idea what you're getting yourself into. The longer you keep that disc away from me, the more you endanger yourself, your family, and your friends."

          "What do you mean by that?" That statement told her that this digimon probably worked for some kind of extremely powerful being who wanted the disc so bad that he or she was willing to kill just about anybody who got in his way. But, to hit her more logical side, it sounded more like a threat from a mafia member. Both seemed just as bad. Apparently, the disc's activation required an online connection, which it didn't have a problem getting, since Tomie _had_ DSL, which was all the more convenient as the program began to weave its signal through the massive information super highway and into The Pentagon's mainframe computer.

          "I've had enough of your crap, kid. Hand me that disc!" The progress bar hit five seconds just as Renamon jumped upward, extending her arms and calling out a few diamonds, "Or else!"

Cyberspace Observation Command (COC), Sublevel 6 – The Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia

June 3, 2019 – Monday, 0310 Hours, EST

          Dr. Xedric Boyd yawned somewhat rudely as he hurriedly tucked his hands into his lab coat's pockets, brisk walking down the dimly lit hallways of COC. He'd awakened only a minute or two ago, disturbed from his peaceful slumber by an EAM (Emergency Action Message) from the Command Center. Something about Project Causeway's Gate Keys 'hacking' into the mainframe computer where the Primary Connection Uplink (PCU) was located. PCU was basically the program that brought all seven Gate Keys' programming codes together, matching them into the data required to activate the 'system', as most programmers called it. Boyd knew the gravity of the situation, although his mind was still clouded by memories of his dream about spending his coming week off in Miami.

As he reached the sliding titanium double doors that led to the Command Center, he stopped to scratch his messy hair and put on his glasses that he might see better. That was when he noticed a pair of rangers standing aloof on either side of the door, not moving at all. Boyd frowned when he realized that they were taking no effort whatsoever to let him inside. "Vhat ah jhou vaiting foh, jhou fools!? Let me in! Schnell!"

          Boyd was American, although he was born and raised, for enough of his life for that accent to stick, in Germany. Boyd itself was an American derivation of Boyscheifk, and obviously sounded more pleasing to the ears. The ranger to the left of the door suddenly cracked up, slapping his rifle with his right hand, soon followed in suit by the one on the right, who groaned in despair. "That's it, man! He said Schnell! You owe me fifty!"

          That was when he realized that they were actually betting on him. The losing ranger muttered several sore loser curses as he fished out his wallet and took out the indicated sum of money, thrusting it in his partner's face, followed shortly by his entering the access codes and the twin doors sliding apart. This revealed a massive room similar in form to NORAD, although instead of a global map, displayed a gigantic sphere that seemed to be composed of wires and had countless tiny electrical impulses surging all over it to the point that it appeared as though the sphere itself was glowing. This was the actual image of the Digital World, although in theory, it was only 'cloud cover' and looked very different if you were on the ground yourself. "It'z about time…" Boyd strolled inside and headed for the man at the command post, the winning ranger still counting his money as the door closed behind the scientist.

          "Zed, we are having one hell of a situation down here…" Ryan Springer was the newest member of the Causeway Development Team, more commonly known as the Bridge Builders, due to their job. He was transferred just before the big move in which the Gate Keys were stolen, and knew nothing of how it worked, except the basics and possibilities… such as this one.

          "How many times did I tell jhou not to call me Zed? It'z a tehhible nickname!" Boyd exclaimed somewhat angrily. "Vhat's za shituvhation?" although Boyd sounded like he was talking about some process that involved the use of manure, those who were used to him could understand him easily.

          "Well, we just got an unauthorized log in a couple of minutes ago. When it was run through the ID program, we were surprised that it was Gate Key Three… the six others came in after that, and apparently, they're being accepted regardless by PCU. They're going to be engaged pretty soon, and God knows what the effects would be…"

          Donald Patterson, the Center's statistics supervisor, spoke up. "We won't be able to trace their signals since they're not directly linked to our mainframe yet… what do we do now?"

          "Vhat ozah choice do ve haf? Ve vait und see vhat's going to happen." Realization hit him as his mind finally began to clear and everything concerning Project Causeway came to presence in his brain once more. His eyes widened as a klaxon sounded off. _We are now at Yellow Alert_.

        "Gate Key Three: Engaged," Patterson announced, "PCU confirmed, we're gonna try to zero in on its location..."

          "Zis cannot be good!" Boyd exclaimed as Gate Key Three's emblem, a golden rifle, materialized on the Observation Center's main view screen, "Phoject: Causevay vill only vuhk phopehly if za discs ah in za same vicinity und activatud simultaneously!"

          "What'll happen if they're not activated simultaneously?" Springer inquired, obviously unfamiliar with the experiments that have been done regarding the discs.

          "Gate Key Seven: Engaged. Satellite tracking systems are a go, we are searching every continent on the planet right now." A pair of purple bat wings lit up, symbol of the seventh key.

          "Ve tested ze discs vonce befoh, Sphingah, und za fohtex zat vas genehated vas highly unshtable, lashting foh no longah zan five sechunds." Boyd was now in a panic, portrayed quite perfectly by his nearly incomprehensible German accent.

          "Gate Key Four: Engaged," a brown Grandfather clock lit up this time, "We've got a lock on the first one…"

          "Zey ahun't evun being activatud in za cohhect ohdah!"

          "Gate Key One: Engaged," a white Coat of Arms came into view, "We've confirmed the second one…"

          "What about if they're not in the same area?"

          "I haf no idea, alzough I supphose za gatevay vill hahdly be shtable…"

          "Gate Key Five: Engaged," a green Ace of Spades popped up, "Signal number three is being tracked…"

          "Well, what if both proper operational requirements are wanting?"

          "Gate Key Two: Engaged," a samurai's traditional sword, the Katana, blue in color, spiraled onto the screen, "Gate Key One's location has been tallied."

          "Za effects vill mosht likely be dishasthous… whatevhah zey ah, zough, veah about to find out…"

          "Gate Key Six: Engaged… Project: Causeway is going online…" A crimson sphere, almost like a pierrot's nose, appeared on screen, connecting in some way of another to all the other six as a message appeared on screen. "System Engaged…" Patterson switched the main screen display to a satellite monitored world map. Seven lights abruptly entered and left existence. "We just detected power surges at Max Sigma 1000. Three of them match the Gate Key tracking signals. We've got our babies now."

          "It'z vohse zen I thought…" Boyd mumbled, "Za fohtex didn't even lasht foh two seconds… Vhat'z moh, za Causevay vas even sepahated to za Gate Keys' individual positions, meaning seven diffehent people have jusht been sucked into za Digital Vohld. Thack zem down!"

          "We have confirmation," Patterson checked the screen save, "Let's see… Three in Tokyo, one in Okinawa, another in… Beverly Hills? The last two are in Moscow and Sydney respectively."

          "Contact Khimes und tell him zat he'z got a lot of vohk to do…"

          "Yes sir."

          "I jusht hope zings can't get any vohse…"

Abandoned Citadel, Sector II, Zone IV, Quadrant I, Digital World

June 3, 2019 – Monday, 1933 Hours, PST

          "That was some ride…" Tomie Kaira groggily tried to stand up, although found it quite difficult to do so. She was referring to the sudden tear that had opened in the very fabric of reality itself and brought her to this place. Wherever this place was. Looking skyward, she noticed that it was dark out. _Of course, silly… it's nighttime._ Instead of stars and clouds, though, what filled the night sky was a vast matrix of black wires outlined by green that seemed to stretch out infinitely in all directions. Upon closer inspection, the wires had tiny electric pulses flashing through their set paths. Wherever she was, it sure wasn't Tokyo. "Doesn't look like I'm in Kansas anymore…"

          She was glad that Renamon was gone. At least she was safe for the time being. Perhaps this was what the disc did? If so, she was most likely in a different version of the Digital World, unique in terms of one, it's had much more time to evolve, like two decades or so, and two, this was the real deal, not something that Akiyoshi Hongo cooked up in his sketchbook one evening. Apparently, this Digital World lacked any sky, since the only thing that stood for it was a ceiling of wires, most probably representing the countless internet connections on the Earth.

          Tomie admitted that she was assuming too much. After all, this was all on the basis that Digimon could be real. That was when a beam of light dropped from the verdant canopy and landed in front of her, an irregularly shaped electronic device slowly descending until it was within her reach. There was only one kind of hand held electronic device she knew that could come in such a nice package in this kind of situation, "It must be a Digivice of some sort…" She took it into her right hand, surprised by how it fit her grip perfectly, plus the fact that it was giving off a warm sensation. Little did she know that she was being given a palm scan to identify her, provided she had a profile in the COC's archive, which she didn't.

          She was a tad surprised when the monitor sprang to life, projecting a three dimensional holographic image at her in every detail, a medieval Coat of Arms, to be precise, the shield separated into four quadrants. The top right and bottom left were blue, whilst the opposite quadrants were white. Behind the shield crossed two ornately crafted sabers, most of their blades covered by the protective device. "Most advanced model I've ever seen."

          One could imagine how far aback she was taken when she suddenly heard a slightly digitized female voice, "Your palm prints are unrecognizable. Perhaps I should try checking your DNA…"

          "A… a talking Digivice?" Tomie's eyes widened in shock. Never in the history of Digimon did a Digivice _ever_ talk. The furthest improvement the legendary gadget had gone through was the Digi-Globe system, which Hongo decided to apply in his latest Digimon anime, Digimon Severance. God knew where he got those titles, although a friend of hers figured out that the second part of the title started with the same letter as the number of the season, with the exception of the first two, which were numbered instead. It all started with Tamers the third, Frontier the fourth, Filter the fifth, Symmetry the sixth, and finally, Severance. Each of these seasons were independent of each other, 01 and 02 being the only two that were link unless you included Tamers' relationship to them. This proved that the originals were either Hongo's favorites, or were just too long to fit into one season.

          "Oh, and it's not Digivice, it's D-Jutant." The device snapped back, "That's a COC abbreviation for Digital Adjutant. I trust you know the meaning of adjutant, Dr. Kaira. That's right, I found a DNA match." Apparently, it had found a DNA match… with her mother's.

          "You got the wrong person… I'm just a kid! I can't be a doctor!" Tomie went frantic. Since when did her DNA match a scientist's?

          "Really? Then why does your DNA match that belonging to Dr. Anna Pearson-Kaira then? How are you two related?"

          The goggled girl was surprised to hear her mother's name from an electronic device that was most likely the product of that funky 'last one on the shelf' CD that wasn't even a copy of Digimon Online. Boy, had she gotten herself into such a mess. "Anna Pearson-Kaira… is my mother…"

          "Well then if that's the case, you should give me your name unless you want me to address you by Miss Kaira all the time, and from what I can see quite clearly, you don't look like the kind of person who prefers to be called so formally… do you? Oh, and by the way, you can call me Iris."

          "It's Tomome Ashley Pearson Kaira…" Tomie managed to mutter, "But please just call me Tomie..." This was ridiculous. She was talking to a Digivice that knew her mother, claimed to 'see' her, had quite a spunky attitude, along with its own name. _They sure don't make Digivices like they used to._

          "Hmm… I wonder why… anyway, let me be the first to congratulate you on being one of the first seven humans to ever set foot in the Digital World." The image that Iris was projecting had changed from a coat of arms into a holographic blizzard of multi-colored confetti.

          "Seven? Where are the others?" If she heard the little talking trinket correctly, she was indeed inside the digital world, with six others somewhere else.

          "Well, this area we are in right now are the exact same coordinates of your room had we been in the real world. Since they're most probably from other parts of the globe, no doubt, they're obviously in the same coordinates as their rooms or wherever they activated the Gate Keys. Of course, you know the drill. United we stand… our first priority is to find all of them."

          "So what's our main objective?" If she was brought here, there had to be a reason. It would be impossible that she had been brought here without any. There had to be some sort of mission or whatnot that would give her being here at least _some_ meaning.

          "COC designed Project Causeway to create—"

          "Whoa, slow down… Project Causeway? And what's the COC?" she was being treated like she already knew the basic terms, that she already knew what was going on.

          "COC is the acronym for Cyberspace Observation Command… it's a branch of the Pentagon that's been designated to monitor all activity within the Digital World that might threaten the real one. Over the past six years or so, thousands of Digimon have migrated to the real world seeking just about everything: food, shelter, friends, even a useless piece of land they could call their own. Although founded to find out just why, COC's advanced tracking systems have gotten out of date, and the continuous increase of internet activity has practically 'blocked out the sun' here, thus rendering this place pitch black. COC is officially blind. In any case, they have designed Project Causeway to create and actual physical gateway into the Digital World in order to allow them to send recon teams to find out just why so many Digimon have been migrating. One of its side effects, however, is that the Causeway generates massive amounts of energy that can in one day surpass the total annual output of all nuclear reactors on the planet put together over a trillion times over!"

          "That is a _lot_ of power there… and this side effect is supposed to be good?"

          "Well, COC has considered its options. The energy's infinitely renewable anyway. Causeway merely piles up the countless bits of data on the internet and uses the energy they produce to sustain itself. Although a single bit produces enough, Causeway has so much mass that it unintentionally taps Terabytes' worth of data for power, hence the humungous output. COC plans to store up as much as they can every time they open it up, then distribute it to the local power companies."

          "How… noble… so what you're saying is that we have to find out just why Digimon have been moving to the real world?" Tomie rubbed her chin. _That probably explains why Renamon was in our world in the first place…_

          "That's right…"

          "So how are we going to find the others?"

          "Eh, I have my ways… trust me. By the way, we D-Jutants have been designed to channel the energy generated by Causeway for use in 'special' enhancements…"

          "For who? It's not like I run on electricity or anything."

          "Not you, silly! Your Digimon partner!"

          "My… Digimon… partner?" Being in the Digital World with a talking smart ass digivice was one thing… being in the digital world with a talking smart ass digivice, a digimon partner, and six other guys who share the same situation, was a whole new ballgame. "I have a Digimon partner!?" her eyes widened as she began to violently shake the poor device, "Well why didn't you tell me in the first place!? I've been wondering how I was going to stay safe in some place as dangerous as this!"

          "We-e-e-e-ll, y-y-o-u n-e-v-e-r a-s-k-ed…" Iris' display was currently a dizzy three-dimensional smiley. Tomie stopped. "I was going to have to tell you sooner or later anyway. Here he is…" Yet again, the hologram switched, this time, to a life-sized image of a gray-furred teddy bear like Digimon dressed in what appeared to be a suit of medieval armor. "This little fellah is Knight Kumamon… pretty cool, huh? Your mother designed it herself."

          "Mom… designed that?" Great. Now she knew three species of Kumamon. Some kid wannabe with a blue cap, a polar bear cub with a bandana, snowshoes and a rocket launcher, and now this… 'knight' with a cute little sword that didn't look like it could cut through crap. "What're his parameters?"

          "Well, he's a Vaccine Digimon, obviously a Rookie, Animal Class, and, Light Property. His digivolutional hierarchy is only for me to know until the time comes. In any case, you can Digi-Gate Edify him to either allow him to move faster, make him pack a stronger punch, give him a harder shell, and of course, cause him to digivolve."

          "Digi-Gate Edify?"

          "Yeah, like I said. A D-Jutant can channel the powers of Causeway, more technically known as Digi-Gate. It's an enhancement thing…"

          "Oh… so where exactly is he?"

          "Oh, yeah… your partner. Hold on a sec." Iris' display changed, this time, to a progress bar indicating Knight Kumamon's realization status. Slowly, streams of data code began to flow out of the device's top port and onto the ground, taking shape into a pair of metal boots, and soon, into a real life version of the hologram Iris had displayed earlier. "And there he is, your very own Digimon. Just remember to love him, feed him three times a day, and you're going to get along just fine."

          Tomie stared in awe at the creature. She had never seen this kind of Digimon before, obviously because he was one of a kind… new… unique. And she owed it all to her mother. Out of curiosity, which, in legend, slaughtered thousands of cats whenever somebody mentioned the saying, she poked his nose, causing the bear a ticklish sensation, which resulted in a rather unpleasant sneeze.

Knight Kumamon had awoke from a long time of slumber, and yawned quite considerably, stretching his arms wide as he could. That was when he noticed the blue-haired girl in the purple goggles staring at him. "Oh, good morning…" he rubbed the dried tears out of his eyes, followed by a finger rubbing his nose to help recover from that sneeze. It was good to be awake, and certainly great to finally be alive. And his common sense was telling him that this human was the one to thank for it all, meaning they now had an unbreakable bond between them. "You must be my partner, right?"

To be continued…

AN: Whew! That's a new record. I actually managed to finish this in five hours, inclusive of my lunch break, and occasional tuning in on the news. I'm just glad this episode is done with. I know, a little too short for your taste, but, what the hell. And don't worry. They're going to have a couple of run-ins with Renamon within those remaining six days… not to mention a few other surprises the Digital World has in store for them. Oh, and pardon the cheesy chapter title… was a little sleepy from all that typing.

Up Next:

          Anna couldn't believe what she was hearing. How could she? The guy had a mechanical hand, for crying out loud. "You're telling me that my daughter has been sucked into the Digital World by one of Causeway's stolen Gate Keys that somehow managed to wind up in one of the many CD stores in Tokyo!? Where's Xedric!? I have a bone to pick with him!"

          Esteban had to shut his ears to protect himself from the scientist's overly boisterous voice. "Calm down, Dr. Kaira. Dr. Boyd is on his way as we speak. And we're doing everything that we can to track your daughter down. I'm sure we'll have her back here safe and sound by—"

          "I'm not buying this bullshit, you hear me!? Do you think I'm stupid? That I don't know why Project Causeway was started in the first place!? That's a laugh! I was Xedric's assistant! I know everything he does about the damned thing! And you know what else, Agent Esteban? I know that COC has no way of contacting my daughter or the six other kids who've been brought into this mess courtesy of the DDD's incompetence!"


	3. Installment Entry No 2

AN: Like I said… to say hello to that goddamned school year, this is what I must do. But before that, I'd like to thank my reviewers for being so encouraging. I'm sure everybody knows how nice it feels to be cheered on by others, and I salute you for that.

Disclaimer: Digimon don't belong to me… okay? The only things I own are the story, setting, characters, and one or two Digimon I made up.

Installment Entry No. 2: I'd Like a Monkey's Hook on a Side of Fries, Please 

Fidge's Point, Sector II, Zone IV, Quadrant I, Digital World

June 4, 2019 – Tuesday, 0736 Hours, PST

          "Okay, JB, let's show these creeps what we're made of!" This was the first time a human boy was ever seen _anywhere_ by the locals, moreover a human boy who carried a talking hand held computer around along with his digimon partner that was pretty much a green monkey in a loincloth with a pair of boxing-gloved hands that carried a gigantic slingshot on its back. They were surrounded and nearing the edge of an extremely high seaside cliff, which was obviously not a good place to fall, by a group of green, orc-like digimon with bone clubs.

          "My, aren't we cocky for a first-time battle!" his device replied with a sense of sarcasm. "Seriously, though, we should be able to breeze through this one. Goburimon are nothing but pushovers who never know what's coming even if you slapped 'impeding danger' in bold red capital letters on a sign and put it in front of their faces after teaching them how to read Japanese. They're complete—"

          "We get the idea, JB…" The monkey cut it off. "Just finish 'informing' us about these guys _after_ we cream them, okay?"

Johnny-Be-Good, or JB, as it had affectionately been dubbed, muttered a few inaudible curses before it finally straightened up and realized the situation they were in was hardly fit for conversation.

Now, to be more descriptive of the boy would be the best thing to do right now, since, it would be hard to imagine what he looked like without any working description. His copper-brown hair was of the average length, upper portion of his crown-in-glory's forward side a little messed-up just to make him semi-adorable. He was around the age of 12, as most digimon lovers were, more or less. A yellow bandana, made of towel fibers, around his forehead complemented his golden eyes nicely, effect furthered by his hair and goofy, toothy grin. His clothes were of the average outfit of the day, red, button and collared shirt paired with brownish pants, topped off with some nice white Nike playing shoes. "Ya ready, Monmon?" The chlorophyll-colored primate nodded, preparing to deploy his slingshot. "Then here we go!"

          Waves crashed angrily on the rocks beneath the trio as the boy raised JB arms' length into the air and called out in as loud a tone as possible, "Digi-Gate Edify! Activate Speed Enhancement Mk I [1]!" JB's holographic display projected its Emblem, its personal signature, a golden M4 Assault Rifle, out for all to see and marvel at.

          "SPEED ENHANCEMENT MK I, ACTIVATED." JB's synthetic male voice boomed out as a beam of golden light burst forth from its screen, up into cyberspace above, and down onto the monkey, with the impact force of a meteorite.

Monmon began to glow with a taint of yellow, feeling a surge of power flowing through him, causing him to feel much lighter than before. In what appeared to be the blink of an eye, he drew his weapon and used his signature move, "Swing Swing!" Three or four power-charged coconuts flew this way and that, hitting the weak points of, and taking out, Goburimon after Goburimon after Goburimon, causing them to degrade into data code, and eventually disperse. Total targets destroyed: Five. Total battle time: Three seconds. Such were the effects of utilizing the residual power generated by Causeway. And that wasn't even an inkling of the total output released by a version that reached only a seventh of Causeway's true potential at most, during its 1.7364-second lifespan.

          EDIFY CANCEL. The light surrounding the monkey slowly faded out.

"Boo yah!" the boy high-fived his partner's gloved hand just as the latter returned his somewhat cumbersome slingshot to its proper place behind him. "Kick ass, Monmon! That was even better than…" he racked his brains for something this battle could have topped, "Than _any_ Digimon game I've ever played!"

          "Uh… guys…" JB spoke up with a sense of foreboding at hand, contrary to its usual talkative demeanor, alarms flaring at what its sensors were picking up. Something was wrong in the Digital World, and it had to warn its partners about it.

          "Not now, JB," bandana shoved his D-Jutant inside his right pants pocket as he brought out a Milky Way bar he'd planned to eat as an after dinner snack the night before, not expecting to end up in the Digital World God knows how far away from his home and parents. He tore the semi-plastic wrapper open, broke the delicate brown finger in two, and handed half to his monkey as he began to chow down on his own part.

Only JB seemed to notice the suspiciously dark cloud formation that took place above the ocean behind them. Of course, that was because among their many different and useful functions, D-Jutants were also designed to determine and analyze Digital World weather patterns. "Guys…" it spoke again from inside bandana's pocket with renewed force. The statement was only ignored by the two, who were about halfway done with their snacks. _Not fast enough…_ by the time it was finished contemplating on what to do, it was too late.

          Bandana suddenly felt a chill run up his spine. Not the kind given to you by horror movies, mind you, but the more natural chill that came with cold weather. "That's odd…" the boy turned around just in time to see the swirling purple and green funnel of a D-Twister collide with his face, dragging all three misfits up into the Digital World's atmosphere and off to some random location on its surface.

Strollway 11, Sector II, Zone IV, Quadrant I, Digital World

June 4, 2019 – Tuesday, 0811 Hours, PST

          "So let me get this straight," Tomie Kaira thought hard about what she had been told by her D-Jutant. "I understand that the Real World's Internet traffic affects weather patterns here, but… how?"

          "It's really simple," Iris spoke in its usual spunky manner, "The Digital World's made up of data code, correct?"

          "Yeah…" Knight Kumamon remained silent as he watched the two philosophize, or at least, that's how he saw it, about silly things such as weather patterns. He was getting really hungry. The trio had spent the previous night at the abandoned citadel, whose only inhabitants were ghosts (or Bakemon, if you prefer to look at it that way) who wandered about its vast hallways, searching for something interesting to do. The trees were long dead, since, of course, there was nobody to tend to them, the citadel being abandoned and all. And to a digimon who knew as little about survival as Knight Kumamon, no trees equals no fruits, equals no food.

          "Well, Internet connections house vast amounts of flowing data code. And since the Internet is, as I calculate it, located in the Digital World's stratosphere, the turbulence caused by the counter flow of the net's data code against the Digital World's normal data code flow is simply depicted as bad weather," the government-programmed device stated matter-of-factly. "This usually occurs within areas whose Real World coordinates contain a large concentration of high-speed-connection computers."

          "And the reason we don't have any scary thunderstorms blowing the place around is?" Tomie looked up at the vast matrix of wires in the sky, their signals pulsing through like stars on set courses for God knows where. If she was right, they were still in Tokyo, not too far from her house, in fact, somewhere in the Asuka district. Memories of countless theater presentations she'd seen flooded her brain.

          "Thankfully, the Asuka District has been spared the vast amount of computers that the rest of Tokyo is gifted with. Maybe it's all the theaters that take up space that usually belong to malls jam packed with cyber cafes." Iris 'looked' up at its partner from its position on her belt, where the former had been clipped onto earlier. "Tomie? Are you listening?"

          The be-goggled girl was snapped out of her trance, "What? Oh, yeah… cyber cafes…" Another thought came to mind. "Iris… I just noticed this, but… why is there sunlight here if the Digital World is literally wrapped up by a blanket of Internet connections that supposedly blocked out the sun?"

          "What?" D-Jutant as it was, Iris didn't have all the answers. After all, it only knew what COC knew, and that wasn't much. "Oh… I guess it's something that isn't going to allow itself to be explained at the moment. That's why we're here, after all."

          "Actually, we're here because I was stupid enough to oversleep when I got home last night." True, the reason she arrived here in the first place was pure luck, but that didn't mean she wasn't happy. She never, in her wildest fantasies, ever imagined ending up in the Digital World. Sure, she once dreamt of being a Tamer, but being in the Digital World this way was unprecedented.

          "Are you saying you don't like it here? That's interesting, seeing as you're supposed to be Digimon Crazy."

          "It's not that I don't like being in the Digital World. It's just that I have responsibilities in the Real World too, you know."

Knight Kumamon's stomach grumbled weakly as the group continued their trek down the dirt road. It was then that the armored teddy bear noticed a sign by the side of the walkway and stopped to read it. "Mucheller Town: Headquarters of McDevimon's Fast Food Chain… two miles." His eyes widened as the thought then struck him of as to what the sign was trying to say. "Fast… FOOD! Hurry up, guys!" he increased his pace, followed by his partner, who was still waiting for her D-Jutant to talk.

          "Like what? School? Chores? Homework? Forget all those for now. Your current responsibility is to gather as much information on the Digital World by exploring it and having me record the figures on the many different locales there are." Iris had a point… Even though she had responsibilities in the Real World, what mattered most, as what she concluded once, was the here and now.

          "I guess you're right…" Knight Kumamon quickened his pace even more, causing the girl to stagger some as she tried to keep up with the hungry bear. "Knight Kumamon! Wait up!"

          "Hold on – I've got something." Iris piped yet again, "I'm detecting three things closing in on our proximity…" Knight Kumamon froze in his tracks. Apparently, he'd sensed them too.

          "And I wonder what those might be…" Tomie looked around for whatever the D-Jutant had sensed. Nothing. "If this thing crawls up on us like an Alien movie reject, I am going to scream at the top of my lungs," she mumbled.

          "Well, we have a Class 3 Digital Storm – a.k.a. D-Twister, a Digimon, and whoopee-dee, another D-Jutant! In short, I think we're going to have company very soon." No sooner had the D-Jutant said this when a dark cloud floated above the road ahead, a massive green and purple funnel spinning violently beneath it, carrying various light and heavyweight objects. As it neared the trio, the large vortex abruptly subsided, dropping its load of assorted objects including debris, a couple of half-eaten chocolate bars, a monkey-like Digimon, and a human boy.

          The boy clutched the back of his bandana-tied head, groaning in pain as he stood and helped his partner up to his large, simian feet. "Boy, Monmon, that sure was one hell of a ride, huh?"

          "Sure, if you consider being flung around and around a relatively small space by winds in excess of 300 miles an hour a ride," the monkey checked his slingshot to see if it was alright. "Eh, a few scratches here and there, but nothing a little sandpaper won't fix."

          Tomie's eyes widened as she recognized just who the boy was, "ICKZ!?" _This is ridiculous!_ They were the best of friends, Hansel and Grettel, sugar and spice… not that she was sweet or anything. That was the comparison she detested the most. It wasn't like they were any more than that, even though their schoolmates tended to push their opinion of the two's welded-tight sibling-like relationship further and further into the 'love knots' category, which was hardly true.

          Ickz - Ichirou Magatsui, rather, was surprised to hear that voice he thought he wouldn't be hearing for at least half a year, since that was the minimum amount of time Digidestined teams in general stayed in the Digital World. He looked up from dusting himself to see if his ears weren't just playing tricks on him. "TOMIE!?" the two simply stared at each other, their digimon partners doing the same thing, while, on the electronic level, their D-Jutants attempted to identify their counterparts.

          Goggle girl spoke first, "ICKZ!"

          Followed by bandana, "TOMIE!" as they practically mad dashed at each other and collided into an embrace that could only be the product of true friendship.

          "Identity confirmed…" Iris announced, "Expanding D-Jutant network linkup to… Gate Key Three."

          A muffled voice came from Ickz's pants pocket, "D-Jutant network linkup expansion from Gate Key One confirmed… completing setup."

          "D-Jutant network linkup expansion complete." Both devices said in unison.

          "So you're a… a…" Tomie couldn't find the right word for it, "A Digidestined too, right, Ickz?"

          "Well, technically…" the bandana-clad boy went through another one of his word structure analysis moments, "We're not Digidestined, since, this whole thing we're in wasn't destined… it was an accident."

          "I guess… but we don't exactly have any better terminology for ourselves, do we?"

          "How's about 'Explorers?'" Ickz picked up what was left of his chocolate bar, sighing in regret at having nibbled on it instead of swallowing the whole thing before the D-Twister hit as he threw the dirty remains off the road in a slight burst of frustration. Milky Way wasn't just a brand of chocolate bar, it was _the_ brand of chocolate bar. Any chocolate junkie knew that, and a chocolate junkie Ickz was. It was a miracle that he kept his balanced figure, what with him doing nothing but munching on Milky Way bars as he either lay down on the couch watching DVD copies of Digimon 01 and 02, surfed the net for Digimon pics and fanfics, or simply hung around his PSX and PS2 playing what else but Digimon Games? Why 01 and 02 specifically? Ickz was also a classic anime junkie and kept other big titles from near the end of the last decade of the twentieth century right in his vast collection of DVDs.

          "Nah, too cheesy." Tomie checked up on her partner, who seemed to be getting into some slight conversation with Ickz's partner, who… happened to be a monkey-like creature… _Just like Ickz._ "Why don't we just keep our group nameless until we're completed, okay? That way, everybody gets a say in what we'll be calling ourselves. After all, we all probably love digimon to have bought these discs in the first place… or their cases, rather."

          _So her Gate Key also came in a Digimon Online CD case, eh?_ "Sounds good to me—" A rather loud grumble was heard, causing just about everybody besides Ickz and Knight Kumamon to fall to the ground, literally big sweat drops dripping from the backs of their heads. _Hara-heta…_ [2]

          "You're hungry too, eh?" the armored bear asked the golden-eyed boy. "Y'know, one of the signs on the road said there was a fast food restaurant a couple of miles from here…"

          "Seriously? A fast food restaurant in the Digital World? I can't say anything about that, except quote a _very_ famous ancient saying…" Ickz was really being himself again, and Tomie was feeling much more comfortable now.

          "And what might that be?" Tomie asked as she helped the monkey up. She could feel it. It was going to be another Digimon quote. He _always_ quoted Digimon whenever he said that.

          "As the great Izzy Izumi would put it, PRODIGIOUS!" The goggled girl slammed her palm into her forehead in realized expectation. She was right. Well, of course. He was as big a Digimon junkie as she was, although his knowledge of anime included other classics that she didn't bother to research for fear of being disappointed. "Then what're we waiting for!?" Ickz grabbed Tomie by the wrist like a child would his mother and sped off in the direction Knight Kumamon had pointed, bear and monkey shrugging as they followed suit.

McDevimon's Fast Food, Mucheller Town, Sector II, Zone IV, Quadrant I, Digital World

June 4, 2019 – Tuesday, 0912 Hours, PST

          "Welcome to McDevimon's! May I take your order, please?" this was an odd statement, coming from a Demi-Devimon… a Demi-Devimon who happened to be floating behind an electronic cash register on top of a counter wearing a Devimonized version of a 'McDonald's' Employee's visor. This specific digimon was sandwiched between four more of his kind who were doing the same thing, namely taking orders and placing fast food onto trays.

          "Uh… I'd like a…" Ichirou Magatsui eyed the menu that was suspiciously similar in design to an average 'McDonald's' outlet's menu, other than the fact that instead of big M's, the designs were curved into D's instead. The owner was obviously focused more on the Devimon than the 'Mac'. "A Big Devil [3] on a side of fries, please?" The burger looked like an average 'McDonald's' burger, despite the fact that he didn't like the looks of how the lettuce was red instead of green. _The guy's got a sick sense of humor…_ _from the looks of things, it's like this McDevimon's been to the real world or something._

          "Drinks, sir?"

The golden-eyed boy took another look at the menu. Water, Helix Juice, and 'Soft Drink'. _Well, he didn't get everything right… he should at least realize that soft drinks are a category in themselves._ "I guess I'll have a 'Soft Drink'._ Better see what this thing's made of, first._

          "That would be 80 bits, sir." The Demi-Devimon finished punching on the cash register's keys with his left talon. Ickz face faulted. _Even in the real Digital World they use bits as currency…_ although he had more important things to worry about at the moment, which had somehow earlier slipped his mind, such as where were they supposed to get the money to pay for the food?

          "Uh…" he pretended to rummage his pockets for any money or valuables he might find. Where was his Digimon Battle Card Deck when he needed it for pawning? It was when he finally felt the outline of his card box when a rather large hand shoved him out of the line and onto his arse.

Ickz stood up in a daze, wondering what hit him, when a rather grumpy voice spoke. "Move over, kid! Can't you see there's people waiting here?" He looked at what used to be his place in the line and saw a red and black dinosaur, 'Digital Hazard' printed on his white belly. His rather punkish attitude was accentuated by the white mane that went down his back.

          "What the—" he reached into his right pocket and brought out JB, who was still mumbling about how people should listen more to the 'established professionals' in the business. He was pretty sure he'd seen that Digimon somewhere before, he just couldn't put his finger on where exactly. He knew it was at least at champion level, since rookies were usually shorter than pre-teens.

          "Oh, so _now_ you want my advice! Well, since it's my duty and all to help you know your digimon from A to Z, I might as well get to it… This guy's a Growlmon – yes, that's right, a _Growlmon_. No, he doesn't have 'Growl' as a signature attack, but he does a hell of a lot of growling when he's angry. He's obviously a dinosaur type digimon of the virus attribute with signature attacks 'Plasma Blades' and 'Exhaust Fire'. This big piggy loves lots of edible things, but what gets to him the most is bread, _especially_ buns. He just can't get enough of them. In fact, he's so into bread that—"

          "Okay, JB, I think that's enough." By this time, Tomie and the others had rushed to see if he was alright. He paid no heed to what the goggled girl was saying, since now that he knew what he was up against, he was ready to get even. "I'm fine, Tomie. I think you should stand back a little, though." He cracked his knuckles and called out to the dinosaur, who just happened to be grabbing his takeout order from the bat-like clerk, who smiled as he said a typical 'Come again soon.' "Hey, bread head!"

          Growlmon turned to look at his offender, eyebrow raised, suggesting both surprise and anger. "You talking to me, squirt?"

          "Don't you know it's not nice to push kids around like that with your size?" Ickz huffed in mock annoyance, as though the much larger creature was nothing more than a mere nuisance to him. "I'd bet, if you were beaten by someone as little as say, my partner here," his thumb pointed at the monkey beside him, "You'd be very embarrassed, huh?"

          "Feh! The chances of a stupid little monkey like that beating me are so small you won't even be able to see it with a microscope!" Growlmon tossed the whole paper bag's worth of fast food into his mouth and swallowed it easily. He then proceeded to storm out of the restaurant.

          "Oh yeah?" Ickz shouted at the beast's back, "If you're so sure, then why don't you fight me to prove it?"

          The gargantuan lizard stopped dead in his tracks and turned around… slowly. The only other thing that Growlmon liked as much as bread, was seeing an enemy mope in shame at his defeat.

          The golden-eyed boy pushed his bandana further up his forehead just to emphasize that he meant business. He had the son of a bitch right where he wanted him. "If I win, you give me all the money you have with you right now…" This was going to be the fastest way to get some cash at the moment, and he wasn't backing down just because he was up against a 10-foot-tall lizard.

          "And if I win?" this was said with a rather harsh grin that unnerved Tomie, who could do nothing but watch.

          "If you win, I'll be your personal slave for the next two weeks."

          "Three…"

          "Agreed. One hour, the town square, you, me, and my Monmon." With that said, Growlmon strolled out of the revolving door, a confident smirk on his face.

          It was then that logic kicked into Tomie's brain. Ickz was usually the more playful of the two, habitually playing pranks around the school. It usually ended up with him getting punched at least once or twice, and this usually brought out his more aggressive side. Take it from Tomie when she said it, "You _do not_ want to get on his aggressive side." This was a different situation, though. Monmon was definitely going to be creamed unless she thought of something. It then hit her like a ton of bricks… _You can always Digi-Gate Edify him…_ Even with that comforting realization, though, the stakes were too high for him to lose. "What exactly do you think you're doing?"

          "Winning us some grub, that's what."

          "Do you seriously think you can beat this guy?"

          "No sweat, Tomie… I've already unlocked Monmon's next digivolutionary level. Right JB?"

          "Right…" Tomie could almost imagine the D-Jutant roll its eyes if it had any.

          "I just hope you know what you're doing, Ickz. It's your freedom at stake here." Another major character problem with Ickz was the fact that he was a big gambler. In any Digimon Card Battle, he would always be in enough a mood to choose a facedown card from his deck as a support card in an all-or-nothing gamble. Hopefully, he would beat this guy… _Hopefully…_ she reminded herself.

Lounge, Digital Defense Directorate Headquarters, Sublevel 7 – The Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia

June 3, 2019 – Monday, 1620 Hours, EST

          Dr. Anna Pearson-Kaira sat nervously at the couch across the reception counter, wondering why the Directorate had called her here in the first place – kidnapped was a more appropriate term, actually. She was on the way home when the taxi she was in was blocked off both directions of the road by two suspicious black land rovers, out of which poured at least four armed men in black ski masks who shot the driver with what she assumed earlier to be real bullets, but were later revealed to be tranquilizers.

They then dragged screaming little her out of the cab and into their vehicle, tying, blindfolding, and gagging her. She stayed awake for hours, waiting for the blindfold to come off, hopefully. During the trip, she could feel the rover roll up a ramp and into someplace tight, judging from the increased humidity. A few minutes later, she heard the disturbing sound of plane engines start up. She was being flown off to God knows where.

          By the time the blindfold was removed, she was being hand led by two members of the US Military Police down a well lighted hallway, with a few potted plants here and there to add some color to the monotonous white, and into an elevator. It was only when she set her eyes on the large insignia on the level that they exited on that she realized where she was.

It was an American Eagle surrounded by a gold ring, head turned to its right symbolizing peace, red and white striped shield on its breast symbolizing defense and the 15 other divisions of the intelligence community, and for the piece de resistance, a background of blue binary code to symbolize the use of advanced computer technology to keep peace. Then of course, there was the label surrounding that entire icon, "Digital Defense Directorate" on the upper hemisphere, separated from the "United States of America" on the lower hemisphere by five-pointed stars on each side of the circle.

She was standing inside the bounds of one of the most heavily guarded facilities in the world, an agency so secret that even COC, in its own secrecy, merely considered it an urban legend and nothing more. She was inside the headquarters of the Digital Defense Directorate. But why? Perhaps it had something to do with the email she had received from Boyd earlier that day realizing COC's predicted worse case scenario. The Gate Keys have fallen into the wrong hands.

          A Spanish man in his late 20's stepped up to her. He was dressed in the typical American business suit, although a real stand out feature of this guy was the large, mechanical right hand that was disproportionate to his arm's size and at least twice the size of his left hand. "Doctor Kaira? I'm Agent Rafael Esteban. Judging from the look on your face, I can tell you already know where you are by now. I'm sorry to have brought you here on such short notice, but it was necessary—"

          "_Necessary!?_" she cut him off, an air of chilling anger about her, "Was it _necessary _for you to take me here against my will!? Was it _necessary _for you to tie me up, blindfold, and gag me like some kind of hostage!? Was it _necessary _for you to shove me around like a slave!?" COC had given her the official title of 'Reina de Hielo' – The Queen of Ice - appropriately fitting her icy royal blue hair and cold personality. That, along with her reputation of pushing people around, ensured her place in COC's hall of fame as one of the most feared deputy chief scientists, second only to Boyd and his hardly comprehensible German accent, which had earned him the nickname 'Albert', as in Einstein.

          "That's because we thought you'd want to hear the news directly from us."

          "What… news?"

          "Project Causeway was activated at approximately 3:10 AM this morning, Eastern Standard Time, and COC has pinpointed Gate Key One's code signature to your house. Eyewitness reports indicate that you weren't at home at the time, so we figured the only person who could've pulled off a Gate Key activation in your house had to be your daughter. The other Gate Keys have also been pinpointed to several other locations around the world, and we have teams on search and recovery."

          "You realize that once Project Causeway sucks in seven human beings, the Gate Keys will _send_ – not upload, mind you - send their programming codes into PCU and manifest themselves in the Digital World as D-Jutants to accompany their human partners…"

          "We've checked Gate Key One already… it's been wiped clean."

          "And how exactly did my little Tomie get her hands on Gate Key One?" The sheer manner in which the scientist said this sent a chill up Esteban's spine. No wonder they called her Reina de Hielo. There was no such story in his home country, but he had been cultured enough in foreign literature to know about her legendary name. She was truly feared by those who lived near her mountain.

          "The Directorate Strike Team sent to pursue the thieves lost the discs inside a CD factory… which just happened to ship them off a few hours later, minutes after the search had been abandoned. They were all purchased, and activated, almost simultaneously."

Anna couldn't believe what she was hearing. How could she? The guy had a mechanical hand, for crying out loud. But that was beside the point, which she tried to get to. "You're telling me that my daughter has been sucked into the Digital World by one of Causeway's stolen Gate Keys that somehow managed to wind up in one of the many CD stores in Tokyo!? Where's Xedric!? I have a bone to pick with him!"

          Esteban had to shut his ears to protect himself from the scientist's overly boisterous voice. "Calm down, Doctor Kaira. Doctor Boyd is on his way as we speak, and we're doing everything that we can to track your daughter down. I'm sure we'll have her back here safe and sound by—"

          "I'm not buying this bullshit, you hear me!? Do you think I'm stupid? That I don't know why Project Causeway was started in the first place!? That's a laugh! I was Xedric's assistant! I know everything he does about the damned thing! And you know what else, Agent Esteban? I know that COC has no way of contacting my daughter or the six other kids who've been brought into this mess courtesy of the DDD's incompetence!" Venting of anger… one of the most popular and effective remedies to cool one's self down. And that is exactly what she did.

          "Easy there, Anna," a calm voice articulated. There was something in its quality that cooled Reina de Hielo down to the point that she exhaled another breath she had taken earlier for yet another rant of a paragraph to unleash on the poor Spaniard. Anna looked to the right to see a Canadian man in his early forties, wearing a black clerical coat, bible in his right hand, hat in his left. "The Lord our God is a patient God, who is slow to anger. Remember that, eh."

          Her eyes widened as she recognized that proverb that had helped her realize, on several occasions, the pointlessness of her outbursts at people who were doing their best. "Reverend Edward Parker…" The man nodded gently, a strange, ethereal aura about him. He was yet another Bridge Builder. A crackerjack hacker in his earlier days, it had been, ironically enough, an incidence regarding the Digital that made him change his ways. He spent countless hours studying and meditating on the Word, and he still did, in fact, and it was all thanks to the next individual that stepped out of the elevator.

          "I decided to bring some company too, eh. Y'know, to make sure those Moslem fanatics don't try their 'hyper faith' on me. C'mon out here, Lucy…" the creature was humanoid, no doubt about that, in the make of a child, golden hair on his head, accompanied by a pair of wings as well on the upper back portion his cranium. He was dressed in a white tunic, which did nothing to hinder four more pairs of wings that sprouted from his back, and another two grown off the sides of his waist. This angelic build, coupled with a shade of blue that was slightly close to lavender in his eyes, gave him an unearthly feel.

          "You brought Lucemon along?" Anna continued to eye the beautiful sight before her in awe and wonder. It was the first time she'd seen a digimon up close, since Lucemon had only been mentioned to her, paired with the fact that COC saw having a digimon within its premises as a liability. After all, weren't digimon always in pursuit of other digimon for their data? Then again, that was the television talking, and not the facts.

Another major misconception that the series brought forth was the idea that Lucemon was an ancient evil intent on remaking the universe in his own image. In reality, however, he was no more than an innocent child who was just trying to get along with existence, as he knew it. Of course, that was over six centuries ago. Lucemon had grown into a realistic character and had digivolved quite a few times, not in accordance to what the show had to offer, however. For some reason, he had instead developed into the angelic order, which was not normal…

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Doctor Kaira. Reverend Parker has told me much about you." the child-like digimon reached out, his hand being met halfway by hers. The angel was given a jolt as he peered into her cold, green eyes. What he saw, anger, worry, fear, were not trademark for any scientist. They belonged to a mother who was scared for her child. That could only mean one thing. "You have children in trouble, don't you?"

          "How'd you know that?" Anna was shocked at that small statement. What could one expect, though? Digimon had many different powers. Not to mention the fact that this one was of the light, and probably had some kind of telepathy. _Yeah, that's it…_

          "Your eyes… they say so."

          "So your kid's in the Digital World, eh?" Parker had assumed as much. Why else would she be here anyway? She had officially quit the Bridge Builder team to provide more time for her daughter, so she no longer had any responsibilities to the US Government. The pastor had now prepared to counter that hellish child-related problem with another Godly solution, "Don't worry, Anna. I know Tomie, and I'm sure she's safe. After all, David himself called the Lord his hiding place… the Lord protected him as a shepherd boy too, eh."

          "I'm sure…" that was when the second elevator made a calm 'ping!' announcing the arrival of yet another person. "Well speak of the Devil…"

          The Devil she was referring to was none other than Dr. Xedric Boyd, in the flesh, who was adjusting his thin-framed glasses as he stepped out of his elevator. "Deep fhied Hitler on a Blitz [4] rod! Vhat za hell is a digimon doing here!?" The scientist drew what appeared to be a blue eyepiece attached to some kind of ear-mountable electronic device and, as what was earlier described, mounted it on his ear. "Activate D-Entifier Vehshion Zree Point Eight."

          Streams of code flew upward on the cobalt lens similar to a movie's closing credits. Apparently, it was in start-up mode. This process was followed by a synthetic female voice that was so common to computers of the day. "D-Entifier Version Three Point Eight Online. Please designate voice command."

          "Identify. Tahget Dihection: Lock Fohvard." Lucemon stared at the German, confused and amused at what he was doing. Although it was making the angel rather uncomfortable, being stared at like that and all. Behind the lens, Boyd could see his view of Lucemon become framed by translucent borders, which began rapidly switching to different pictures stored in its databanks, searching for a match.

Finally, after ten seconds or so of blank staring, results finally surfaced. "Lucemon, Angel Digimon at Rookie Level. Techniques Include: Grand Cross, Judgement Kick, and Eternal Gate. Trademark characteristics: Purple crests under left eye, on left arm, left leg, and left side of torso – significance unknown, Wings – six pairs. Brief description: Born with six pairs of wings, he is the example of what the greatest angel should be."

          "Name Roots."

          "Name Root: 'Luci': Latin - Light."

          "Digivoltution Thee…"

          "Digivolution Tree: Rookie – Lucemon - Champion – Unknown - Ultimate – Lucemon (Falldown Mode) - Mega – Lucemon (Satan Mode.)"

          "Zis is intehestink… a Man of God is pahtnehed vith ze Devil himself…"

          "I'd just like to correct a little mistake that humans have when it comes to digimon," Of course, Lucemon began to speak in his own defense. "Even though we resemble some icons in your tradition, it doesn't mean we mimic their personality traits as well. Besides, Lucifer only became Satan when he allowed his pride run away with him and started a coup de tat against God. My design takes place before that point."

          "Vehy excellent deduction," Boyd was impressed. How could such a small boy know so much? It must've been Parker's teachings. It sounded like one of them, "However, it vould be my responsibility, as a Digimon expeht, to remind jhou zat jhour digivolution thee [5] also phoghesses into levels zat ah qvite demonic, in a sense…"

          "That's why I've strived to deviate from my normal digivolution tree, Doctor," the angel's eyes narrowed in determination to end this debate about his nature. "And I must say that I'm very satisfied to have stayed an angel through out my entire evolutionary chain."

          "Alhight, alhight, jhou vin." It was better to stop the argument before things got any worse.

          "So what's our next course of action, Doctor Boyd?" Esteban seemed to be really into this discussion. After all, he started it.

          "Let's see… hmm… Ze Gate Keys have sent zeir phoghamming codes up into PCU, rendehing zem effectively useless. PCU, however, is shtill online."

          Esteban spoke up once again, "Just let me remind you, Doctor Boyd, that both the Directorate and the Military want to take advantage of whatever operation you plan to undertake. They want to know if you're planning on bridging the gap between both worlds again."

          "Vhy?"

          "In the event that a stable Digi-Gate is established, they intend to construct a functional and permanent air force base inside the Digital World…"

          "I'll give it some considehation," That, however, was just a social courtesy, since, in his mind, Boyd was already swearing German obscenities at the stupidity of the idea. "Actuvally, zat seems to be our only option…" he brought out his palm pilot and started calculating. "Let's see… accohdink to my calculations, it vould take us zree to four months to modify und encode a second set of Gate Keys…"

          "Modify?" Anna was thinking the same thing. "That would include revoking the D-Jutant conversion codes and increasing the stability capacitors to make sure Causeway doesn't close after seven people have passed through to the other side. Then there's the parallel coordinates factor…"

          "Zat's vhat I like about jhou, Anna. Jhou catch up to vhat I'm zinking about vehy qvickly. However, zat time span doesn't cover the time reqvihed to reassemble ze Bhidge Builahs. Zat vould add at leasht anozah two weeks."

          "But don't you think the children would be in big trouble?" Esteban had always valued human life, especially children. After all, he was happily married and a father of two.

          "Don't worry. If I know Project Causeway's protection procedures, I'm sure they're alright. I mean, they have digimon partners, right?" Anna was confident in their little babies. Causeway's D-Jutant program was perfect. Each D-Jutant had its own corresponding digimon and special ability. Furthermore, the D-Edification system made sure that they would be protected. This was after three years of studying digimon and their destructive capacities.

          It was now Lucemon's turn to say something, "I'm a firm believer thanks to Reverend Parker, Doctor Kaira. Even though digimon aren't on Jesus' salvage list, I know that God exists. And it's the faith that brings me to the conclusion that even with all the effort you've put into this project, the bottom line is that only God gets to decide if they make it out of there or not. Let me just warn you that no amount of preparation can truly ensure your safety in the Digital World."

          "That's why I asked for a little divine intervention, eh." Parker smiled. He always wanted to say that. "Besides praying for the little children, I also encoded the Armor of God into Gate Key One's special capability tab."

          "Vhat?" Boyd wasn't exactly gifted with understanding of the Bible, but he'd heard of such a thing. Whether it was a material thing or metaphor didn't matter, as long as it was there.

          "The Bible says that the Armor of God is the ultimate survival kit that a believer needs in this world, eh. I just turned the metaphor into a literal, usable object. I encoded the corresponding verses, put in a few graphics, some function and limitation algorithms, and viola! Pretty nifty, eh?"

          "Quite…" Anna smirked.

          Boyd shoved his hands into his coat pockets, another trademark of his. "Vell, ve von't do any good standing ahound like zis und doing nozing. Let's staht looking for zose ozah Bhidge Buildahs."

Conception Chamber, Kazek' faleil Cell – The Guild, Somewhere in London

June 3, 2019 – Monday, 1833 Hours, AST

          _Crack._ She was late… very, very, _very_ late. It wasn't like her. Guild Master Thak' Rhazhad paced up and down the hallway, a rather impatient air about him. The seer was never late. _There's always a first time for everything…_ Renamon had disappeared from the face of the planet, taking his signet ring - _his_ signet ring - with her. There were only two explanations for this. Either the stupid bitch had double-crossed him and run away, or something else happened that couldn't be explained by his rather complex logic.

          At last, sounds were heard. A weak tapping on the floor at first, then louder, accompanied by footsteps. In a few moment's time, an old midget in a dark cloak could be seen heading straight for him, upper half of her face concealed by the cloth. She stopped in front of the taller man and spoke, "You're early. I said I would meet you at 7 PM, not 7 AM."

          "How did you—"

          "Shush! I am the seer, remember? I know _everything!_" the Guild Master could swear that that statement was followed by a blast of dramatic trumpet music, companied with the roar of waves crashing onto jagged rocks on the sea and the resonance of thunder, all centered on this old hag.

          "Sure, but you can't see _anything_…" he mumbled out of hearing range. Big mistake, he concluded, as the cane swatted his left leg. "OW! What the bloody hell did you do that for!?"

          "I also _know_ what you're thinking!" she then went on her way to push open the pair of giant, ornately crafted brass doors to the Conception Chamber, one of the Guild's most important facilities for two reasons. One, this was where they have been using centuries' worth of black magic to summon digimon into their world, and two, it was the center of the seer's powers.

          The Guild Master merely shrugged and followed her inside, conveniently keeping his face in the dark areas at all times as he continued to munch on his precious Graham Cracker.

The center of the room was a huge square pit, around two feet deep, the corners of which were illuminated by blue-flamed incense torches. In the center of the pit was a large white crystal, around five feet in height, roughly carved out of wherever it came from. This was the 'Heart of the Seer', and was pretty much a perfect name for the said magician's source of power. "So… what can you tell me about—"

          "Renamon and your missing ring! I know!" She turned to face the crystal, the light of the flames exposing her empty eye sockets, yet failing to reveal what was inside. The seer raised her arms to the crystal, the tense expression on what used to be her face displaying a great amount of concentration. This went on for a few moments until both she and her 'heart' began to glow a blazing white.

The cane was raised upward, and the white radiation receded into the bulb that was the former's tip. As in all cases similar to this one, a beam sprang forth from that bulb and for some strange reason, stopped several feet short of hitting the ceiling as it widened into what appeared to be some sort of window, Renamon's determined face in the middle. "Renamon! Where the bloody hell are you!?"

          "Master!" the fox kneeled in respect, head bowed. "It appears as though I have been sucked back into the Digital World. The discs worked."

          "I see… status report."

          "Apparently, I have no idea where I am. I've never been to this area before. However, I can still sense that girl nearby."

          "What girl?" his chewing progressed once more from elegant and fine-mannered, into the grotesqueness of his anger. He skimmed his memory for any recollection of – "Ah! _That_ girl! Of course!"

          "Any further instructions?"

          "Stalk her. Make sure you collect the disc the next chance you get. I must now go attend a business meeting."

          "Of course."

He signaled the seer to stop, closing the window and cutting off all possible communication. "So you're going to buy 75 percent of the shares belonging to a new little enterprise and take over the corporation without allowing it to grow first? My, how brash you are indeed."

          "What business decisions I make are none of your business…" the Guild Master turned to leave. "And stay out of my mind, dammit!" He stopped halfway to the door as he pulled out a pistol and shot at the old hag. She smiled as the bullets bounced off an invisible wall that surrounded her and onto the floor, the flattened tips showing that the latter's defensive capacity was one to be reckoned with. "Typical…" He could swear that he heard a horrendous cackle as he bit off another piece of his Graham Cracker, the doors shuting behind him.

Town Square, Mucheller Town, Sector II, Zone IV, Quadrant I, Digital World

June 4, 2019 – Tuesday, 1021 Hours, PST

          "Exhaust Fire!" Monmon had barely dodged that attack. Although it was a continuous stream of flame, so the monkey had to run for his life. He jumped behind a dump truck that was conveniently passing by, just long enough so that the crimson lizard ran out of breath.

          The dump truck rolled past, and the green ape was revealed, "Okay, my turn! Swing Swing!" Slingshot was drawn, deadeye handler taking aim and releasing a power-charged coconut, which hit home, namely, Growlmon's 'Digital Hazard' warning. Growlmon cringed at the hit and tried to comfort the sore spot on his belly. That Big Devil meal was reacting quite negatively to the hit.

          "Okay, JB! Where's Growlmon's weak point?" Ickz's eyes slanted, focusing on the already recovering dinosaur.

          "Oh, boy, where do I start? This guy's as weak as a fruitcake! In fact, he's so weak that—"

          "JB! Focus! Give me the first one that comes to mind!" the bandana-wearer clutched his D-Jutant tighter, causing it to actually display verbal evidence of suffocation.

          "Alright! Just stop that!" Ickz loosened his grip, "Let's see… first weak point, uh…"

          "Faster, JB!" Growlmon had returned to his attacking stance.

          "Right knee! Growlmon's right knee is just like fruitcake!"

          "Monmon! Swing Swing his right knee! Now!"

          "Too late, chump! Exhaust Fire!" this blast hit dead on target. The force threw a medium rare Monmon into the town square's fountain, dousing the flames. Fortunately, the monkey knew how to swim. A crowd had already begun to gather, making this battle a really big one. If Growlmon lost, he would so in a huge crowd, and that would be embarrassing. He _had_ to win this fight. "Exhaust Fire!" the surface of the fountain was engulfed in flames. Maybe because of some incompetent Birdramon who accidentally dropped a bucket's worth of crude oil onto the said effigy earlier that morning.

          "Monmon!" Ickz growled. Enough was enough. It was either he, Tomie, and their digimon had that well-deserved brunch, or they'd be snacking on Monmon flambé. And he wasn't about to let that happen. Again, he raised JB into the air, knowing exactly what to do. Tomie could only shake her head as she saw the flames that were ablaze within her friend's eyes. "Digi-Gate Edify! Activate Digivolution Mk I!"

          "DIGIVOLUTION MK I, ACTIVATED."

That same beam that had enveloped the monkey earlier hit the burning pond, killed the fire, and held onto the chimp, this time, remaining in its cylindrical form for a substantially longer period of time. One, however, could easily see the silhouette that was inside, not to mention hear the sounds from within. "Monmon Digivolve to…" the simian shadow within the golden light was visibly shape shifting, growing in size to more than twice its original height. The standout features were vague, but Ickz, and not to mention the crowd that had gathered, could make out the outline of a corsair captain's hat, a rather large meat hook-like thing, and the barrel of a _very_ large flintlock gun. "Hookmon!"

          The light finally faded, revealing a rather tall humanoid figure in a blue old day naval officer's coat, boots, and hat. The hat, to be noted, had a not-so-standard skull and crossbones on it, since the skull belonged to a generic saurian digimon, and was facing the pirate's left. His right arm was cut off some ways up the elbow, a large brass hook in place of a forearm. A little below his shoulder was a blue cravat that was apparently used as a dressing for some nonexistent injury. His left shoulder was marked with an insignia, an anchor, depicting the obvious: this digimon was into the navy. In the place of left a forearm was a rather large flintlock gun, the barrel glinting menacingly in the late morning sunlight. Not much was to be said of his face, since the hat shrouded most of its features. The only part visible was a pair of shady blue eyes just above his thick collar and red inner clothing.

          "What in God's name is that?" although Tomie was into digimon, she wasn't exactly an expert. The goggled girl looked at her D-Jutant.

          Iris seemingly shook its head and released a holographic picture of the target digimon, which rotated ever so slowly to provide a perfect view. "Hookmon's the name, piracy's his game. This bad boy's a champion, mutant, _and_ virus digimon. Probably a rip-off from Captain Hook, I might add. His signature attack is Caption Cannon, which obviously comes in a large package, judging from the size of that 1632 flintlock. He even comes complete with a pirate's accent!"

          "Alright, Hookmon! Let's show him who's boss!" Ickz felt that good old adrenaline flow through him again. He was hyped up and ready to win.

          "Argh!" came the pirate's signature snarl as he stepped out of the pond, brandishing his hook and gun, oily water dripping off his boots. "Now let's see how ya deal with a Cap'n like me, matie!"

          "He's digivolved… amazing." Growlmon shook his head for even letting his guard down for a second. It was time to finish this. "Plasma Blades!" his forearms' fins ignited as he charged the pirate with all his momentum, ready to cut his opponent to shreds.

          Hookmon caught both fins in the middle of a downward slash with his hook and turned Growlmon's inertia against him as the latter was flung upward, over the crowd, and into the wall of a nearby building. The spectators cheered, enhancing Ickz already high blood adrenaline content. "Say yer prayers! Caption Cannon!" the flintlock unleashed a massive cannonball that flew into the wall, pushing Growlmon further into the covering until a hole was made, smoke and dust rising from the explosion.

          A few moments of silence, and movement could be seen, more specifically a large red dinosaur, who stood up and growled, yellow eyes narrowed at his adversary. "That _hurt_!"

          "Well it's gonna hurt a hell of a lot more, laddie! Caption Cannon!" another cannonball flew straight at the lizard and nailed his hazard sign yet again, dropping him. Hookmon marched over triumphantly to his defeated enemy, training his weapon at him again. "So what'll it be, land lubber? Walk the plank? Taste my hook? Or should I blast you to kingdom come?"

          "Alright! Alright! I give up!" Growlmon reached into a concealed pocket, drew a pouch full of what appeared to be computer chips, and shoved them at the pirate. "Here, take it! Take it!"

          "Argh… the spoils of war!" his hook pierced the sac and raised it high into the air.

          It was when he got a good look at his defeated opponent, his swashbuckling partner, and the sac of cash he was 'holding' up, that conscience gave Ichirou Magatsui a good kick in the rear. "What am I doing?" yet again he had let his desire for food get away with him. His stomach grumbled, seconding that motion. "Edify Cancel!" Ickz's partner returned to his original form, confused at what happened. The bandana-wearing boy rushed over to Monmon, panting as he reached his partner. He snatched the sac and handed it back to the lizard. "Here." It was at that point that the crowd began to dissipate.

          "What… but I thought—" Growlmon didn't understand. The kid had gotten what he wanted… and he was giving his money back? The same money that he had won fair and square? Why? "I thought you wanted the money…"

          "Nah… you keep it. I think I've proven my point enough." Ickz placed the pouch into Growlmon's open hand, knowing exactly what to say. "Besides, I can always pawn my Digimon Card Collection at some shop here." He showed the case of highly expensive collectibles to the dinosaur, who only laughed. "What?"

          "Those things ain't worth a penny, kid!" he reached into another pocket as he stood up to his proud ten feet once more, bringing out a ring that the golden-eyed boy reluctantly accepted.

          "Eighteen carat gold? Are you serious?" Ickz didn't know what to say. At least this guy wasn't a sore loser… at least he had a sensible side.

          "Don't worry about it. Found that thing on the road on the way to McDevimon's. Figured it must be worth something at the local pawnshop." Growlmon smiled as a hand was offered to him in the form of a shake.

          "Thanks… I guess…"

          "Don't mention it. By the way, lunch is in two hours." the dinosaur turned to leave, "Oh yeah… I didn't quite catch your name, kid…"

          "Ickz… just call me Ickz."

          "Alright then. See ya around… Ickz." and with that, Growlmon walked off into some random building, probably where he worked.

          "Now, to get some grub…"

Ickz turned around to face a rather irritated Tomie, complete with tapping foot and crossed arms. "And what did you think you were doing?"

          "Winning us some brunch, remember?"

          The girl pouted as she adjusted her goggles. "Seriously, now. You three were the center of attention for the past five minutes!"

          "Well, at least he gave me _this,_" Ickz smiled wryly as he held up the ring for all of them to see. "Might be worth a couple of Devi-Meals at the fast food joint."

          "Sure. But remember that you're paying this time."

          His arm snaked over her shoulder. "Don't worry, Tomie. That's what friends are for!" He grinned his signature carefree grin as he led the group back into McDevimon's for that well-deserved, long-awaited brunch. Sadly, though, he forgot that in order to survive in a cash-or-credit-only world, one needed to pawn his valuables in order to get his hands on some hard currency. The effects of this bad decision, has been left to the imagination.

Abandoned Citadel, Sector II, Zone IV, Quadrant I, Digital World

June 4, 2019 – Tuesday, 1211 Hours, PST

_          Footprints_. Someone had passed this way recently, and judging from the size and shoe marks, whoever did was definitely human. And humans had _never_ set foot in the Digital World before. The smell was also familiar. Perfume? No… Deodorant? No… The scent of a human girl? Renamon smirked as that guess hit home.

          She was the hunter, and that fanatic was her prey. When was the last time she'd gone on a chase such as this? Not something she could actually remember. It was this hunt that mattered any way. She took another sniff and pierced the soil with her claw. From the hardness she could tell it had been at least five hours since her quarry had passed this way.

          It was best to make better time and catch up before she lost that girl's trail completely. The vixen darted off in the direction those footprints led, prepared for anything, all in the name of the Guild. _Anything…_

To be continued…

AN: I would like to note a few things first: [1] – "Mk I" is read as "Mark One".

                                                          [2] – 'Hara heta' is Japanese for "I'm Hungry."

                                                          [3] – That's a derivation of Big Mac

                                                          [4] – Blitz: German for Lightning Krieg: German for War.

                                                          [5] – Thee is read as t-H-ee, as in tree in the normal English accent.

Okay, now for the closing notes. I would just like to say that that was the longest I've ever written in a span of one day. My God, I must be in such a rush. No, Lucemon does not have brain damage, I simply think he's better off being a good guy. Furthermore, you heard right. The DDD plans to build a permanent base of operations inside the Digital World – something that no human organization has ever done before. If you figured out, from my repetitive clues, that Ickz is similar to Son Goku (Saiyuki) in quite a few ways, then congratulations. No, he's not as big a glutton as Goku, but he might start acting like a monkey some time. No, he won't have a Gojyo to bicker with either. This won't become a major clone festival, mind you! And Lucemon? Well I'm just crazy enough to have him digivolve into a Seraphimon some time, which is rather awkward, since… his rookie form is A HELL OF A LOT MORE POWERFUL THAN SERAPHIMON!

Up Next (hopefully):

          It was hard enough to have to fight while wearing an oversized nightgown that was meant for an Angewomon to wear, since she had to keep her skirt down. After all, what was a motel rooftop without any billowing winds? "Knight Kumamon! Grizzly Sword, now!"

          "Grizzly Sword!" The armored bear leaped at the yellow fox, sword drawn, ready to cut her in half. He swung the blade down, expecting it to be over, but he was wrong… dead wrong. The weapon had clinked on cement. Renamon was gone.

          A whistle knocked him out of his thoughts, bringing him to whirr around in the direction from whence it came. The following sight was not good. Renamon was standing behind his partner, one arm wrapped around her torso, other hand sprouting claws that were ready to slit the girl's neck. "You are a _very_ lousy digimon if you didn't sense that that stupid thing was nothing but a phantom. And since you didn't, I guess it's high time this girl here tried teaching you how to fight properly."

          The fox darted out of existence, leaving Tomie on her knees, crying. That was when a very familiar voice resounded, seemingly coming from every feasible direction, "I'll be back when you're both ready to face me. It's not nice picking on a pathetic human and her equally worthless digimon." This was followed by an extremely chilling laugh that only the most notorious women in history could ever accomplish to do.


End file.
